Science
Related: About this forumThe World’s First Heartless Man
By Zeon Santos in Health, Living, Pictures, Science & Tech on Feb 2, 2012 at 9:21 pm
Doctors from the Texas Heart Institute have successfully replaced a patients heart with a device that keeps the blood flowing, thereby allowing him to live without a detectable heartbeat or even a pulse. Heres how it works:
The turbine-like device, that are simple whirling rotors, developed by the doctors does not beat like a heart, rather provides a continuous flow like a garden hose.
Craig Lewis was a 55-year-old, dying from amyloidosis, which causes a build-up of abnormal proteins. The proteins clog the organs so much that they stop working, according to NPR.
But after the operation, with the machine as his hearts replacement, Lewis blood continued to spin and move through his body.
However, when doctors put a stethoscope to his chest, no heartbeat or pulse can be heard (only a humming sound)which by all criteria that we conventionally use to analyze patients, Doctor Cohn said, he is dead.
more
http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/the_world_s_first_heartless_man
I thought Dick Cheney had that distinction...
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)Kablooie
(18,645 posts)baldguy
(36,649 posts)He ripped it out of a homeless orphan's chest & has it in a jar sitting on a shelf in his crypt - er, I mean "office".
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)or from a freshly killed innocent Iraqi civilian.
flobee1
(870 posts)does the motor speed up when he increases activity?
Warpy
(111,417 posts)The old Heartmate machines, which did produce a pulse, were capable of being set a little higher for intense physical activity. However, this design is smaller and has a lower power use, better for permanent implantation, and will allow a patient to get back to reasonable activity.
He'll have to hire somebody to move the piano, though.
wyldwolf
(43,870 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,317 posts)DaveJ
(5,023 posts)Still pretty amazing and interesting, to think about life depending on a mechanical device. And then to realize that we are just machines anyway. It's surprising we last as long as we do.
FailureToCommunicate
(14,027 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)I can't imagine having to endure that....of course they did save lives, but can you imagine being confined thusly?
FailureToCommunicate
(14,027 posts)medical research (Republicans take note)
solarman350
(136 posts)I'm awaiting the organ farms and the clone-growth tanks (from the "Dune" series). Now, if you've STILL got a functioning mind, you can be hooked up to machines and still "live." All of the vital organs except the brain can be supplanted/replaced now. We even have synthetic blood to carry oxygen and waste products around in our "bodies."
http://www.ask.com/wiki/Blood_substitute
Duncan Idaho, DATA, and Captain Picard indeed!
eggplant
(3,917 posts)a2liberal
(1,524 posts)j/k, neat story
Scuba
(53,475 posts)tclambert
(11,087 posts)How can you measure it? Is it just one number?
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)You couldn't measure it with a standard cuff - but I suspect that the device reports pressure.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Historic NY
(37,458 posts)I don't think he is the first....whatabout the Jarvik heart in Barney clark.
Rhiannon12866
(206,601 posts)The big difference here is that Cheney never did have a heart.
On the other hand, this is truly amazing!
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)or if his perception of time, or the world, changes, without that rest in the pulse. What kind of music do machines with a living brain like? Now a different human, but with a major part that now runs rather than pulses - seems like it would change how he operates in the world, in ways that the patient might not even be aware of.
Or maybe not...