Artificial Heart: advances of modern medicine by Michelle Shaw

The starts of the Jarvik-7

shaw2163 — 2024-05-10 16:23:56 UTC

“There was a growing confidence that American scientific ingenuity could engineer almost anything--including the human body”(Scientific American). During the 1960s the United States was in era of optimism toward the technological area. Nevertheless it was not common to perform a heart transplant, but still the rate of heart disease was increasing given this Dr.Robert Jarvik and his colleagues build the Jarvik7.

The Artificial Heart Program-1964

contreras5206 — 2024-05-13 16:30:42 UTC

Following the introduction of stem into society, more science and medical programs were created. Dr. Michael DeBakey convinced President Lyndon B Johnson to create the Total Artificial Heart Program, which will fund the investigation of the invention of a human made heart. The money for this program came from the federal government. Economically the government awarded 160 million dollars to the program and their investigation, which led to several discoveries and drafts of an artificial heart.

Coronary Heart Disease: epidemic of the 20th century- before 1960s

contreras5206 — 2024-05-13 17:07:50 UTC

As shown in the graphic during the 1950s-1960s there is shown a huge increase in heart failure or any cardiovascular problem. According to the Scientific American article the mention, "Cardiologists were realizing just how little they understood about either the prevention or treatment of this killer disease. So in a sense, the government's pursuit of a mechanical heart was inspired by the medical inadequacies of the time." (Herbert). The government releasing this led to a motivation for further research through investments. Life for people with heart disease was very costly. During the time, medical spending for a healthy person was around 700 dollars, which is around or more than 7,000 dollars today. Now imagine how expensive it could be for someone in constant need for medical service. Therefore, the creation of an artificial heart will help reduce the amount of money in the long term. Because even though the device and surgery could be expensive, after a successful transplant it will help prevent them from going to the doctor often as before. Also, giving them more freedom and a healthy life time.

Ben Carson and the separation of conjoined twins (joined at the back of the head)- 1987

contreras5206 — 2024-05-13 18:08:45 UTC

Any type of surgery either in the heart or in the brain are extremely risky. Conjoined twins are 2 babies that are physically connected to each other. The separation of them will involve a cautious procedure since a very important vein is located in that section and any type of accidental cut either in the blood vessels or the brain could cause irreparable damage or death. The only person brave enough to accept this challenges was brain surgeon Ben Carson. Also important to mention that the separation was between 2 adult twins, who have been connected for 29 years. In kids, this surgery is much safer than in adults. The surgery was a completely success and brought an advancement to science and future medical procedures. Before this was thought impossible, they thought that at least one of the twins will survive, however the surgery saved both of them proving a medical advances. Same happen with the total artificial heart, some thought that it was impossible to model and transplant a plastic made device that will replace one of the most important organ in the human body. However, after trying it was shown that it was possible and motivated the future development in this technology, so that in the future it could be use to replace in its entirety the human heart.

Jarvik-7 surgery and the media: 1982

shaw2163 — 2024-05-13 19:18:20 UTC

SynCardia artificial heart (bridge)-2003

contreras5206 — 2024-05-13 19:22:40 UTC

SynCardia company came up with their own model of the artificial heart, which does have influence from the Jarvik 7. They also added the portable freedom driver (2010), which allow patients to live their normal outdoor life rather that being kept in the hospital connected to a machine and pay expensive medical bills. The surgery and device (TAH) is also very costly and not many people can get one unless they are in an extreme need of a heart, they will use the TAH as a bridge until a donor is found. About 600 people have this device and it cost around $190,000 to $220,000. It is the most used around the world because of its proven 16 year efficiency. The price is tremendously high, and many people are able to afford this type of procedure, however, in the long term it will help them reduce the amount of medical bills they were paying before. Without any surgery, the visits, stays at the hospital, and medication for treatment will continue to add up to the medical expenses to the point that it can reach the same value as the artificial heart.

Progress of the Jarvik-7: 2000s

shaw2163 — 2024-05-13 19:31:44 UTC

Background/ contextualization 60s &70s

shaw2163 — 2024-05-14 18:47:07 UTC

Artificial hearts were being developed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) but most of society didn’t know about this until Christina Bernard in 1967, did the first human Heart transplant which led to the invention of the Jarvik-7 to be the first total artificial heart permanently implanted.
Social impact: It started an interest on society about the impact of an artificial heart transplant and generated awareness for a way to treat heart disease.

WW2 advances in plastic surgery: 1943

shaw2163 — 2024-05-14 18:51:41 UTC

Like during the 1960s, WWII led to many medical advances. Advances in plastic surgery were available to veterans to recover any traits lost due to injury. Before these advances, soldiers were left with tons of traumas, severe burns, and damaged faces. Once they looked in the mirror they were reminded of the horrible experiences during war. Doctors involved in plastic surgery use skills that are still used nowadays. For example, in order to preserve the skin left after a burn, they will use petroleum-coated gauze and wrap it around the patient. The reason why this event connects with the creation of the artificial heart was the goal and motive to start plastic surgery. Both these events wanted people to have a good and healthy life, either by accomplishing a device that could replace the heart while a donor is found, or generate more strategies to recover the appearance of people after an incident. Both require great precision and experimentation, and even though there were complications or failures in them, they still contributed to future advancement in the medical field.

Primary source-2017

shaw2163 — 2024-05-14 18:53:49 UTC

This demonstrates how Jarvik was impacted by the Heart surgery of his father and even got him to change the course of his life from architecture into medicine.The background that went before the building of the Jarvik-7 and the analyzing that he went thought I’m order for it to be safe for the human body.

Civil War amputations

contreras5206 — 2024-05-14 19:24:23 UTC

During the civil war amputation were the fastest way to treat patients in a short amount of time but because this caused a lot of traumas for the soldiers or infections that will cause the soldiers to eventually die a lot of advancements were made. For the soldiers who survived amputation they eventually wanted an artificial leg or arm for looks by helping it be less noticeable and North Carolina was the first to create this. Nowadays clinics offer rehab and prosthetics for the military to be able to have an easier non traumatic experience by also giving all the sanitary restriction of the procedure and more educational knowledge from the doctors. This connects to the Artificial heart surgery because people needed a solution for a very common problem at the time which the University of North Carolina gave them but at the start is was not known neither supported by the organizations at the time but with advancements, new knowledge about and high demand it was approved by the org making prosthetics one of the most made products for medicine and by far almost 1.7 million use it.

New generation of artificial heart-2021

contreras5206 — 2024-05-15 15:30:09 UTC

This event is an effect from the 1982 artificial heart. Like any other medical/scientific device or process, as time goes by, more advanced and effective methods or models are being created. However, most of them come from or resemble an idea presented in the past. In this case, this new advancement was made by CARMAT and it was transplanted at Duke University. It shows that this technology is still developing in the hope of replacing the heart entirely, meaning that a donor is not needed anymore. In more general words, the effect of the artificial heart of 1982 was that it motivated a new field of research that changed what was known about cardiology and the cardiovascular system. Doctors became more aware about diseases related to the heart that were affecting the population, and started developing more technologies that could help in the future. Even if they fail, it always brings humanity one step closer in being fully successful and accomplishing the goal. With this new recent heart research it shows how people are still interested in researching this topic and are still medical models and advancements.

Primary source

contreras5206 — 2024-05-15 15:35:28 UTC

This source came from the doctor that made the artificial heart transplant to Barney Clark. It shows how people during the time suffered in their day to day lives with a heart disease. As they mentioned, he couldn't do anything on his own, he needed help from his family to do basic things like walking. After all those years with treatment and help from many doctors, he decides to volunteer for and get the first artificial heart that was transplanted successfully. With this, it is important to illustrate how desperate was the scientific and medical field to find solutions to the increasing rates of heart failure during the time. However, to find an individual brave enough to undergo an unknown surgery is very difficult, so it's important to recognize the effort of both researchers and the individuals being examined to move science forward.

Heart transplant- 1968

contreras5206 — 2024-05-15 18:50:28 UTC

While research was being done in trying to build the artificial heart (TAH). Other doctors/scientists/researchers, focused on transplanting hearts. In 1968, doctor Norman Shuyman accomplished the first successful heart transplant. With this it created a surgical technique still used today in these circumstances. Today, more than 60,000 heart transplanted have been done, with 80 percent of the patients surviving the first year. The only problem with heart transplants is that to find donors that are the right match for a specific patient is highly difficult. This means that a patient could wait a long time for a heart donor, and this could worsen their disease. This when the artificial heart comes in. The meaning of the usage of the artificial heart changed due to advances of the heart transplant, and it became a solution to the long waiting problem. The idea is that patients can get the artificial heart as a bridge while they are waiting for the donor, without worsening their health condition. With these ideologies, many lives in society will be saved.