Mending Broken Hearts

Multimedia package documents a heart transplant surgery, and examines issues pertaining to the worldwide epidemic of heart disease.

The worldwide epidemic of heart disease is documented in these eye-opening images. Photographer Robert Clark explores what type of research is being done with the ongoing Jackson Heart Study in Jackson, MI., the largest health study ever of African Americans in the U.S. He also stitches together photos from a five-hour open-heart surgery at the Berlin Heart Institute where a patient receives an artificial heart. Clark is so moved by what he learns in this assignment that he documents how his own behavior has changed as a result. The result is a four-part narrated slideshow -- Heartsick, In the OR, Ethnic Issues and Taking Precautions – plus a photo gallery and video profile of a heart transplant recipient.

Length: 2:50

Photography and audio narration: Robert Clark

Photographs of Robert Clark and heart surgery movie: Christopher Farber

Producer: Miki Meek

Senior Writer: Cassandra Franklin-Barbajosa

Illustrations Editor: Kurt Mutchler

Interactive media production: Miki Meek, Christopher Farber

Video producers: Brian Storm and Eric Maierson of MediaStorm

VIEW: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/02/hearts/hearts-interactive