Doctors Save 16-month Old Baby with Smallest Artificial Heart Transplant

**although this is most definitely medical related, I am posting in the Sci-Tech forum, because the content of this thread is scientific and technological in nature**

SOURCE

Doctors save the life of a 16-month-old boy by implanting the world's smallest artificial heart to keep the infant alive (13 days) until a donor was found...

While the device was used as a bridge to the transplant, in the future it could be permanent...

The titanium pump weighs only 11g & can handle a blood flow of 1.5 litres a minute...

Artificial adult hearts weighs 900g...

Invented by American Dr. Robert Jarvik, it had previously only been tested on animals....

The boy received a donor, the transplant was a success and the boy is now doing fine.

WOW! this is the type of news I like to hear about!

I realize this article is a couple days old, but I wanted to get it into ATS to inform anyone who had missed it (like me)

This is absolutely incredible and reveals a medicinal future that is heading to places unthinkable a century ago.







Could future artificial organs be grown on a person to person basis?

For example: you need a new... kidney....could your DNA be harvested and used grow a bionic kidney, grown in tandem with natural tissue made up of your DNA, making transplant rejection a thing of the past.

I think it is possible that this medical breakthrough could have staggering implications for what health maintenance has in store for us in the coming decades.

Knowing the Dr believes this technology will eventually be used as a permanent solution, is it too far fetched to think other organs will be produced and introduced as viable solution for chronic health conditions?

Supplementing our organic bodies, transplanting new bionic technologies may lead to humans becoming bonafide cyborgs.

I wonder, could this advancement become somewhat morally 'taboo' when these bionic upgrades become an accessible option for prolonging health and life?

I imagine, as we advance further and further, there will be an inevitable demand for bionic upgrades into completely healthy individuals.

These type of advancements could certainly become more taboo than they currently are, if too many major advancements are introduced too fast. I guess it could really scare people.

I can tell you now... If ever a time comes that I am faced with terminal diagnosis or having bionic technology, I will have the bionic transplant, ragardless of any taboo or social stigma that may surrounding it.

I imagine, faced with those 2 choices, becoming a Cyborg would be chosen in nearly every situation.

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen!

I am just checking in, even though this thread was largely unsuccessful in creating a good platform for discussion/debate on this particular topic.

I personally thought the announcement of such a medical feat would warrant a decent discussion and maybe speculation on where our species is headed, when medical progress is the topic

It didn't occur to me that this type of information may not be exciting to many people, though I never imagined the reception would have been as cold as it resolved to be.

Other than the way I presented the information to you all in the thread, do you folks have any suggestions on why the thread, and it's contents, didn't garner more attention?

I am curious to know if you find the knowledge of these tiny artificial hearts, transplanted as temporary solutions and eventually permanent solutions, to be unimpressive?

Don't take this post the wrong way, please.

I'm simply trying to get your feedback & opinions. I want to learn a lesson and use the information in the future, allowing me to author more accessible / approachable threads that have a higher level of success.

Either Way, Thanks!!