The Heart healed by love: A story medicine cannot explain

In the quiet corner of his office, renowned Russian cardiologist Vladimir P. Almasov kept a human heart preserved in a jar of alcohol. Whenever visitors asked why, he would share a story that bridged the power of love with the limits of medical science.

The story began with an old photograph: a young couple in love on their wedding day. It was 1950, and Almasov was still a medical student in St. Petersburg when a young woman named Marina was admitted to the hospital with a severe diagnosis — subacute bacterial endocarditis. The illness had advanced too far; doctors saw no hope for recovery.

Among the hospital staff was a young physician named Sergey — quiet, dedicated, and deeply humane. Though he could not cure Marina, he fell in love with her. His daily visits, his kind words, the flowers he brought — they formed a connection that no prescription or treatment could explain.

Then the impossible happened: Marina’s heart began to heal. Her vitals improved. Against all odds and every medical prognosis, she recovered. Months later, she and Sergey married. Almasov, then a student, attended their wedding — a moment he captured in the photograph he would later show generations of young doctors.

Years passed. Marina and Sergey built a beautiful life together. Until, in old age, Marina once again neared the end. In her final moments, she made one last request: that her heart be donated to the medical faculty in St. Petersburg.

“A sick heart can be healed by a heart that loves,” were her final words.

That was the heart Professor Almasov kept in his office — not as a medical specimen, but as a symbol of something greater than science and technology: love.

Vladimir P. Almasov (1902–1985) was one of the leading figures in Soviet cardiology. He performed the first heart transplant in the USSR in 1957 and played a key role in the development of modern cardiac surgery.

By Dr. Alket Koroshi

“KORÇA BOOM”