The conventional approach is to keep even a severely diseased heart functioning, if possible, with assist devices.

FORBES: Lonely Heart

The bullet had missed his heart but left Tojo severely wounded.

WSJ: US WWII veteran who captured Japan's Tojo dies

But that was before Vioxx (withdrawn because of heart attacks) and Ketek (severely restricted because of liver side effects) and a series of other controversies that resulted in FDA brass being called in front of Congress.

FORBES: Biotech Busts And Breakthroughs In December

In July Glaxo pled guilty to U.S. misdemeanor charges that it had marketed the anti-depressants Paxil and Wellbutrin for unapproved uses and had not disclosed clinical data related to the diabetes medicine Avandia, which eventually had its use severely restricted because it may increase the risk of heart attacks.

FORBES: With Transparency Pledge, Glaxo Makes Promises No Other Drug Company Has

Children with SLOS have autism spectrum disorders and the most severely affected have birth defects, such as cleft palates, learning disabilities and heart defects.

BBC: 'No-one had heard of my boys' syndrome'

If a person with anorexia becomes severely malnourished, every organ in the body can be damaged, including the brain, heart and kidneys.

CNN: Anorexia nervosa

Dr. HERMIETTA EDENBURG (Physician, Doctors Without Borders Hospital, Dubea, Democratic Republic of Congo): The history is that there is diarrhea for a couple of days, so what happens is, in that she is severely dehydrated, and she came in in a really bad state with hardly no pulse or heart action anymore, because of the dehydration.

NPR: Congo Violence Creates Medical Crisis