Sometimes you need to toss your most basic assumptions in order to solve a problem.
The heart is simply a pump that circulates blood through the body to deliver oxygen and remove carbon dioxide. But if you think about it, who says you need to deliver the blood in pulses rather than continuously. All previous attempts at an artificial heart tried to replicate the beating of a human/animal heart.
Doctors Bud Frazier and Billy Cohn realized that blood could be distributed more efficiently by a pair of turbines that would probably be more reliable over the long term. Sure, the recipient of a turbine heart has no pulse, but he is very much alive regardless.
#medicine
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I would replace my heart with these little turbines. Though they should come up with a backup system that will kick in if they fail.
that's really interesting. the issue is then defining "Alive." because a lot of places (at least, I THOUGHT) would say that someone "died" for X amount of time because their heart stopped beating..
They've had continuous flow Left Ventricular Assist Devices for ten + years.