Murphy’s law in cardiac surgery

We report the case of a 41-year-old man who underwent heart transplantation after suffering from aortic dissection during the implantation of a biventricular assist device for heart failure after coronary artery bypass grafting. The biventricular assist device had to be operated by hand for 10 hours because of a technical defect. In the end perseverance won out and the patient is now doing well at 2.5 years of follow-up.