In short:
A mechanical heart has been implanted in a New South Wales man who was experiencing severe heart failure.
He has become the first person in the world to be discharged from hospital with the titanium heart.
What’s next?
Doctors say the invention will likely be an alternative for donor heart transplants in the future.
From the article…
It is powered by an external rechargeable battery that connects to the heart via a wire in the patient’s chest.
The battery lasts four hours and then alerts the patient that a new battery is needed.
Exposed wires? Does this mean I could overclock my heart with a bench power supply?
Hopefully it can just run off wall power while at home. It would suck to change in the middle of each night.
I hope no software is involved.
software update is available, heart will be restarting now
Serious answer to a facetious reply: I’d imagine there has to be some level of software involved if it’s pulsing, even if it’s rudimentary or low level. I also wonder what it does in terms of the bodies demands such as during physically intense activities. I’d guess that it doesn’t which, along with the 4 hour battery life, probably answers why it’s a stop gap and not an alternative at this point. Still awesome though.
I watched a talk regarding a pacemaker/defibrillator incorrectly shocking a woman because she was an edge case (being younger and pregnant). She sought help from doctors who, as you may guess, knew nothing about the software. The manufactures ghosted her when asked for information, let alone source code. Some of them are wireless, vulnerable to attack. Being in control of any software running inside our bodies is an important issue to consider.
non-opensource code for bodyparts should be illegal
The headline makes it sound like the heart was a reward. “Congratulations on your operation, here’s your prize: a titanium heart.”
It’s for being wounded as a result of enemy action while in space
Just one step closer to:
I wonder if the pump runs at a constant rate instead of pulsing… Imagine playing tricks on people because you’ve got no heartbeat!
Old artificial hearts used to do that. It works but pulsing is better for your long term health IIRC.
Fascinating, and awesome for people in need, but a whole new level of battery anxiety.
I hope that it has some sort of self-charging mechanism that is entirely human-powered. You would think that they’d design it that way.
But even then, batteries and capacitors eventually go bad. So they’ll still have to be replaced every few years.
I don’t imagine you get enough power from a gyro to be worth the added complexity. Plus of course if you never stopped working you would need an alternate way to charge it which means you still need an external power supply even if only for emergencies.
Why only 4 hours though? How is the capacity of that battery? Also, how does thies heart react to increased demand like a normal heart does?
Can’t wait for the day when I’ll be able to get a titanium pancreas!
I want to believe you’re joking, but I can’t quite believe it.
;)
Wait, I though the man survived a record 100 days and then got a normal heart. Is this the same guy or a different one?
I think the guy that had it for 100 days went back to being the science officer.
The universe does seem rather badly designed these days
