Meet The Worlds First Heartless Human!

Yep! Literally! An amazing feat by Dr. Billy Cohn and Dr. Bud Frazier from the Texas Heart Institute. They came up with what they call a “continuous flow” device which would allow blood to circulate throughout his body without a pulse. They removed Mr Lewis’ heart and then installed the device -the patient was up, well and speaking with physicians the very same day!

Here's how they did it...

Dr. Cohn is a veteran surgeon, as well as an inventor and researcher who has spent a large portion of his life developing technologies to replace or repair the human heart. The most notable device being what is called the Left Ventricular Assist Device, also known as LVADs.

Cohn teamed up with Dr. Bud Frazier to develop a new invention that uses the technology from LVADs to replicate the functions of the heart’s right and left ventricles. They (unfortunately) tested their device on 70 calves, all of whom produced a flat line on an EKG, no heart rate or pulse, yet they were perfectly normal, ate normally and interacted with each other normally but again, had no heart beat.

Read more: www.disclose.tv...

Would man be able to live without his vital organs replaced by technology in the future? Would that mean we will become a civilization of robots with human brains?

originally posted by: OrionHunterX
Yep! Literally! An amazing feat by Dr. Billy Cohn and Dr. Bud Frazier from the Texas Heart Institute. They came up with what they call a “continuous flow” device which would allow blood to circulate throughout his body without a pulse. They removed Mr Lewis’ heart and then installed the device -the patient was up, well and speaking with physicians the very same day!

Here's how they did it...

Dr. Cohn is a veteran surgeon, as well as an inventor and researcher who has spent a large portion of his life developing technologies to replace or repair the human heart. The most notable device being what is called the Left Ventricular Assist Device, also known as LVADs.

Cohn teamed up with Dr. Bud Frazier to develop a new invention that uses the technology from LVADs to replicate the functions of the heart’s right and left ventricles. They (unfortunately) tested their device on 70 calves, all of whom produced a flat line on an EKG, no heart rate or pulse, yet they were perfectly normal, ate normally and interacted with each other normally but again, had no heart beat.

Read more: www.disclose.tv...

Would man be able to live without his vital organs replaced by technology in the future? Would that mean we will become a civilization of robots with human brains?

Whoa..now that is really cool. I will have to think on this one for a bit.....wonder if there is any reason for heartbeats....I mean if this is the case then they have just eliminated heart attacks.

Hmmm, Could this be used to help solve the problem of zero G travel? I know that our hearts become misshapen in low gravity situations.

www.youtube.com...

a reply to: Vasa Croe

It's just how we evolved. Body needed something to deliver the goods so a strong continuously contracting muscle developed.
In theory it a constant flow of blood will work, and it's demonstrated here.

Although, I do have to ask. Aren't there people who have a fake robotic like heart already walking around? Isn't that sort of the same thing.

Our heart rate changes when we're nervous, scared, calm, walking, running, or sitting still. I wonder if the artificial heart can change the blood flow based on the current state of your body or if it just works at a single pace.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Well, eliminating heart attacks is not QUITE what has happened here. A coronary blockage is still possible even with a continuous flow system like this, because liquids flowing through a system, invariably create eddy points, where the current is diverted, normally into a circular flow. This often occurs at, or just after a junction in the system through which the liquid travels. It is at these eddy points, that blockages could still form, and cause problems for the subject.

I guess this would also cut out high blood pressure as well. Too bad they put this in a guy that was only going live a little bit longer and did not find a subject that only had heart problems that could have lived long enough to really study this on humans.

Thank god! I thought I was going to open this thread and see a pic of Dick Cheney. What an awesome thread.

a reply to: OrionHunterX
Kinda gives mew meaning to the term, "walking dead".

a reply to: OrionHunterX

Didn't Dick Cheney live for a number of years with such a device?

a reply to: OrionHunterX

they just stopped the 8 chakral flow that could have saved them. Oh well just pop a cultured heart back in them and start again.Because, Zombies

I wounder if then have taken into consideration the lack of presure on the arteries?
the hart gives strong pulses that give high then low presure.
this exorcises arteries and squeezes the blood out of the arteries.
the constant blood flow he is giving will weeken the arteries over time.
I see a Lot of complications in the term.

a human bodies has evolved over millions of years.
or pop't up about 6000 years ago. god nuts.
the bodie is all built to work together.
it will not work for long with a Bad hart.
he could use a pulse moter insted.

a reply to: Hefficide
Former Vice President Dick Cheney got a mechanical heart pump in July 2010

He no longer has a pulse, but Dick Cheney has a mechanical heart pump – and a chance for a normal life

www.nytimes.com...

As long as he doesn't break a sweat he should be alright. Or maybe the pump comes with a throttle, like a carburetor?

Can he floor it?

You know, I've looked at the thing and I just can't see what's unique about this. You can put in two Heartmate II's, one for both ventricles. Or a pair of HeartWares. Or a pair of CentriMags. It's not an uncommon procedure. No current VAD has "pulses", they're all axial flow (a little turbine) or a centrifugal pump like a turbocharger.

If you've got a patient with a very sick heart, it's pretty common that the heart throws the towel in totally after the implantation, and you will have no pulses or EKG at all, just a whine. Some people still have viable heart and have very weak pulses with a dual VAD. But not all. If you've only put in an LVAD you still have to have the right ventricle working properly. But with a dual VAD it just doesn't matter what the remainder of the heart does.

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
Whoa..now that is really cool. I will have to think on this one for a bit.....wonder if there is any reason for heartbeats....I mean if this is the case then they have just eliminated heart attacks.

No, there's not, but living with a VAD is just unpleasant as can be.

Heartmate III was supposed to be fully internal. But they didn't do it after the company got bought (IIRC). I don't know if anyone is working on a fully internal system now. What you end up with is a couple of fabric covered lines exiting the abdomen going to a controller box, and that's hooked to batteries. You wear a bat belt or a wookie bandolier of controllers, spares, and battery packs. And you risk the constant problem with line tear-out, line infections and equipment failure.

If the pump quits for even a few seconds, you can end up dead - they'll clot pretty fast and that's it. The end. You are also on a lot of meds all the time. Showers are difficult or out of the question. Or anything else enjoyable, pretty much. These things are a bridge to transplant for most people. Although with amyloidosis I'm not sure you don't end up with it again. It's sort of "mad heart disease".

originally posted by: intrptr
As long as he doesn't break a sweat he should be alright. Or maybe the pump comes with a throttle, like a carburetor?

Can he floor it?

You can adjust the rate. If he's got good atria left, you can close loop the rate off the atrial beat speed so that the pump controller looks at what the heart might have done if it was still working. For someone with amyloidosis, probably not.

a reply to: Bedlam

Thanks for the reality. That whole scenario is scarier than just dying from a bad heart.

What happened to gramps, he's just sitting there staring. Quick, replace his battery.

originally posted by: buddha
I wounder if then have taken into consideration the lack of presure on the arteries?

People with VADs have blood pressure, it's just technically tricky to measure. Basically, you get a vascular doppler, and you put on a cuff, and you inflate the cuff until the doppler quits 'whooshing'. That's your pressure. It's a single number, since you don't have a diastolic.

it will not work for long with a Bad hart.
he could use a pulse moter insted.

Studies show continuous flow works just fine. People didn't do that at first because they thought the RBCs would lyse going through the pump. So they wasted a lot of time building hearts that "beat", like a Jarvik. No one does that anymore.