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25-year-old lived for more than a year without a heart

293 points| rocketpastsix | 9 years ago |sciencealert.com | reply

85 comments

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[+] kerryfalk|9 years ago|reply
Admittedly I didn't read the whole story, the click-bait title got me.

I had a girlfriend with a similar device attached to her (an LVAD). At first it was a little unnerving seeing her unplug the batteries that were keeping her alive and charge them every night. It quickly became normal for me. Life with it seemed relatively normal except she had to have a purse with her at all times (it carried the batteries).

The interesting part was when she received a transplant and went cordless. After being attached to it for two years and not having a heartbeat the sound of her heat beating kept her up at night for a couple of weeks. I hadn't even considered the beating of a heart to be relevant to our daily lives until she had mentioned it once she heard hers beating again (an LVAD is just a constant velocity pump. The blood is always flowing).

Not sure how much it really adds to the conversation other than an interesting anecdote.

[+] cushychicken|9 years ago|reply
Wow, I had no idea you have no pulse when you have an LVAD. That's really neat.

Do you have any idea if there have ever been studies on the effect of constant flow vs peristaltic flow on the circulatory system? I wonder if the constant flow creates or solves any issues.

[+] c-slice|9 years ago|reply
There are two types of LVAD's- continuos flow and pulsed. LVAD's "piggyback" onto the existing heart and provide additional force to the left ventricle (which pumps blood to the body). The biggest issue with LVAD's is immune rejection and plaque buildup. As the body responds to a foreign object it will frequently form plaques on the LVAD's internal valves. It's very challenging to determine if this plaque buildup is occurring without literally opening up the patient's chest via surgery. If the plaque breaks loose, they frequently cause stroke or pulmonary embolisms.
[+] mpettitt|9 years ago|reply
I knew about the continuous flow, but hadn't considered that you wouldn't hear your own pulse as a result. My father in law has an LVAD, which has given him back a lot of freedom following a severe heart infection early last year which damaged his natural heart badly. He's now on the transplant list, so I'll point it out to him as a "hey, this could be weird" thing.

Do they mean that blood pressure is stable too, since you presumably wouldn't have a diastolic reading - no pressure reduction between beats, since there are no beats?

[+] lsaferite|9 years ago|reply
Not an expert, but from reading what an LVAD is and reading the article, these are two very different things. He had a full heart replacement device strapped to his back. As in, the blood ran out one tube, into the pack, then back into his body. An LVAD is an internal pump for the left side of the heart and you just provide it power externally. Not to discount your girlfriends experience at all, but that seem quite different.

EDIT: Actually, watching a video, it looks like the tubes are for air maybe? Weird device in any case.

[+] Idontreddit|9 years ago|reply
That's amazing. It's both awe-inspiring and unnervingly depressing to be reminded that we are ultimately just biological machines.

Reminds me of that procedure where a surgeon can freeze you, drain your blood, take out all your organs and then put them back in, stitch you up, pump blood back in and then warm you up and awaken you. It was like unplugging your PC, taking it apart and then putting it together and turning it back on.

[+] themartorana|9 years ago|reply
I gotta say, this is a rare case where the link-bait title wasn't so much link-bait as a succinct description of what was in the article.
[+] j1vms|9 years ago|reply
Click-baiting titles on sites these days are probably driving people to the comments section first rather than RTFA. Crowd-sourcing and displaying in-place article titles on sites would make for a great browser extension. Might be as bad for site owners' short-term business goals as ad-blockers are.
[+] grondilu|9 years ago|reply
Artificial heart designers may thus consider doing something to simulate the noise and vibration of a heart beat, to prevent any awkwardness after the transplant.
[+] Sinaf|9 years ago|reply
Please think about becoming an organ donor. It is completely ok to decide against it. At least you have contemplated the idea.

http://www.organdonor.gov/

[+] jamesblonde|9 years ago|reply
Where I live it is opt out, not opt in.
[+] JorgeGT|9 years ago|reply
No need in my country, it is opt-out instead of opt-in :)
[+] clentaminator|9 years ago|reply
Fun fact: The book Infinite Jest includes a character who keeps their artificial heart in their handbag. In one scene, the handbag is snatched by a passing thief which leads to the character shouting "She stole my heart, stop her!". As expected, this is tragically misconstrued by passersby who believe that the woman was in the middle of a sad yet not unexpected lovers quarrel, whereas in actual fact her heart had been stolen. Tragicomedy in the same scene.
[+] mentos|9 years ago|reply
Separate thought, if you were to replace your lungs with a machine that oxygenated your blood, could you calmly sit without breathing? Is the anxiety/impulse to breathe do to a lack of oxygen?
[+] tonylemesmer|9 years ago|reply
This oxygenator[1] along with a load of other kit and gas supplies replaces your lung function during a heart bypass. It swaps O2 and CO2. But it only works for hours before clots start to become a problem. The fibres in the oxygenator are coated with heparin to delay the complications.

[1] http://www.medtronic.com/affinity/

edit: forgot the link!

[+] ars|9 years ago|reply
Yes, you could sit without breathing. They do this in surgery all the time (heart/lung machine).

I suspect they want to minimize the blood's contact with anything because blood likes to clot, so doing it longterm without blood thinners might not work so well.

That's what is so amazing about this device: All other devices before it threw off so many clots they killed the patient rapidly.

Lookup "Jarvik" for some of the history.

[+] andrewchambers|9 years ago|reply
It's from buildup of co2. You would need to scrub that.
[+] gefh|9 years ago|reply
How many organs can you do this for? Heart, lungs, kidneys at least. 'Brain-in-a-jar' seems like the most achievable form of immortality at the moment.
[+] sitic|9 years ago|reply
There is a great NYT documentary on artificial hearts and the history behind it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xn5u-LzsW8

It starts with the Jarvik-7 artifical heart from the 1980s (first seen as a success, then as a failure) and then moves on to today's temporary and permanent artifical hearts.

[+] andrewclunn|9 years ago|reply
I wonder if it affected his mood at all. I mean is the heart pumping of anxiety or anger a symptom or part of a feedback loop?
[+] metaphor|9 years ago|reply
What is the feedback loop that regulates the artificial heart's pump rate, assuming it exists at all?
[+] ZeroGravitas|9 years ago|reply
I would guess so because beta-blockers are also prescribed for anxiety as well as various heart conditions, and breaking the feedback loop is the intended effect. I'd imagine therefore that you'd be a bit less anxious as a result.
[+] ars|9 years ago|reply
It's the body telling the heart "Pump more, we need extra oxygen".

Not having a heart doesn't change his mood, his mood changes the heartbeat.

That's why there were so surprised he could play sports - without that acceleration he might not have enough bloodflow for his activities.

I wonder if it has a knob to manually adjust the flowrate.

Or maybe since it's mechanical it's fine for it to run at max at all times? That might not be good for the rest of the vascular system though.

If that's bad for the vascular system then an idea would be to measure O2 saturation in the toes, and adjust the flow if it gets low.

[+] 0xdada|9 years ago|reply
Even if it is, I assume everything that comes with knowing you don't have a heart is too much of a factor for this to be measured/evaluated.
[+] jamesblonde|9 years ago|reply
Carmat have a competing device that's been implanted in 5 patients so far. It is much more technically advanced, with Alan Carpentier designing, I think, to prevent blood clots. However, it's. A pump based device Nd the jury is still out on how long pump based devices can last. They expect the xarmat heart to last 5 years.
[+] ekianjo|9 years ago|reply
Carmat gets a lot of bad press when each patient with their pump dies, even though the press does not realise patients would be long dead without them.
[+] known|9 years ago|reply
Artificial KIDNEY will be a boon for human beings
[+] 6stringmerc|9 years ago|reply
Love seeing these stories about the will to live and fighting through hardship and making the most of every opportunity. These sorts of folks - who just want to be normal - really strike a chord with me. Fascinating specific instance and type of treatment.
[+] kilroy123|9 years ago|reply
I wonder if it is just better to have the artificial heart for the rest of your life? With all the complications with having a heart transplant, it seems like it could be equally dangerous.

Note, I'm a lay person, and have no clue. Just pondering.

[+] maxerickson|9 years ago|reply
Presumably the doctors involved are balancing the various trade offs when they go with the transplant.
[+] googletazer|9 years ago|reply
Its good to hear people are working on things like these, artificial hearts prolonging life. Gives some perspective and your own problems pale in comparison.
[+] gazarullz|9 years ago|reply
I don't know why for a second I've read that he lived more than a year without internet.
[+] grimmdude|9 years ago|reply
Wow, would hate for one of those supply lines to fail :|
[+] slowm5|9 years ago|reply
whoa, one step closer to becoming cyborgs.
[+] darawk|9 years ago|reply
This is not new or particularly interesting. Dick Cheney had one of these for a long time. I knew someone who had one too. I'm not sure why this is being written about as if it's new.
[+] ErikAugust|9 years ago|reply
This guy also played basketball with this - and also, it is a external machine worn as a backpack! So it is new in big ways.
[+] rosser|9 years ago|reply
Cheney had an LVAD, not one of these.