The Heartless Man

[GoldenRivet]

55 year old Craig Lewis was suffering from a heart condition which caused a build up of abnormal proteins and not even a pace maker could correct the condition. As his condition worsened to it's most advanced stages, Doctors estimated that he had somewhere between 12 to 24 hours to live.

But, two Texas Doctors had developed a "Continuous flow device" which uses two turbines to function as a whole heart, a device that they had tested on 50 young calves successfully but had never been implanted in a human.

The procedure required the patient, Mr. Lewis' heart to be completely removed. In it's place, the "Continuous flow" device would be installed where it would not pump blood through the body - but would flow it as water might flow through a garden hose.

Mr Lewis was sitting up communicating with his family the day after the surgery, he lived for 5 weeks without a pulse and a heart rate of zero. But the procedure was too little too late. Mr Lewis slipped into a coma as his organs failed one at a time as a result of the advanced nature of his disease. His family made the call... turn off the device.


http://abcnews.go.com/Health/texas-m...ry?id=13838596

[Rhodes]

Incredible! Great breakthrough for medicine, I suppose!

[Betonov]

Originally Posted by Rhodes

Incredible! Great breakthrough for medicine, I suppose!

It is. Unfortunate that the man only lived for 5 weeks. If he had a long life afterwards it wouldn't only be good news for him, but for all of us.

[Rhodes]

Yes, but it is a beginning of something.

[Betonov]

He did die because his disease has progressed too far.
We can be optimistic.

[Jimbuna]

Looks like a gigantic leap for medical science

[Sailor Steve]

Fascinating new technology. I'm glad to be living in an era which sees this sort of thing becoming more and more commonplace. I only wish I could see the next generation of breakthroughs. And the next. And...

[Penguin]

Lewis had worked for the city of Houston, helping to maintain the city's vast system of wastewater pumps, and in his spare time, he "piddled around" with woodworking and metalsmithing, Linda Lewis told NPR.

This is actually a pretty good example on how important interdisciplinarity thinking is and not staying in the boundaries of one field.

The question arises how the device adapts to necessary changes of blood flow in the body and how the pressure is regulated.

[Betonov]

Originally Posted by Penguin

This is actually a pretty good example on how important interdisciplinarity thinking is and not staying in the boundaries of one field.

Unfortunately I see too often how educated engineers can't think outside the box. An entire class spanning every year should be focused on teaching engineers how to think outside the box.

[GoldenRivet]

Originally Posted by Penguin

This is actually a pretty good example on how important interdisciplinarity thinking is and not staying in the boundaries of one field.

The question arises how the device adapts to necessary changes of blood flow in the body and how the pressure is regulated.

Lewis is the patient, he did not develop the heart.

the irony would be however that he spent his life working on pumps and turbines and in the end, pumps and turbines would extend his life allowing him to say his final goodbyes to his family.

as for the flow and pressure regulation... no clue. I would assume it would maintain a constant flow and pressure. in which case, the life of the individual would have to be pretty sedentary; ie, not running any marathons.

then again.

give the technology time and im sure a small computer, internal or external would be able to adjust these factors to meet the demands of the body

[Wolferz]

I would discover that no insurance covers the treatment.

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

Lewis is the patient, he did not develop the heart.

my bad, I guess the pumps and metalworking part made me think he was also the inventor.

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

as for the flow and pressure regulation... no clue. I would assume it would maintain a constant flow and pressure. in which case, the life of the individual would have to be pretty sedentary; ie, not running any marathons.

then again.

give the technology time and im sure a small computer, internal or external would be able to adjust these factors to meet the demands of the body

The thing is that there's a natural fluctuation of one's blood pressure over the course of the day, so some regulation thingy should be necessary even if the patient doesn't participate in exhausting activities. Hope we'll be able to read more about the tech specs when this device proves itself in more cases.