Man Kept Alive by Machine after Heart Removed - United Bimmer Community

**komodo** · 05-07-2006, 07:50 PM

http://www.nbc6.net/health/9169086/detail.html

Quote:

MIAMI -- Doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital called a surgery in which a man had his entire heart removed while he awaits a transplant groundbreaking and rare.Doctors said they had to perform a medical procedure done only 20 times in the entire world for Louis Quarterman, 61, or he might not be alive today.

"I don't have anybody's heart inside me now, and that's amazing to me," Quarterman said. "That big machine right there at the foot of my bed, that's the heart. It's operating from the outside."In 1993, Quarterman had a heart transplant at Jackson Memorial Hospital. It served him well for 12 years."That transplanted heart started going bad. We knew we would have to get to the point we would have to re-transplant," Quarterman said.But, there were no matching donors, so two weeks ago, University of Miami surgeons at JMH removed Quarterman's heart and reconstructed the main chambers to hook him up to the external pumps, which are now keeping him alive. It was the first procedure of its kind in Florida."There have been 20 or so done in the entire world, mostly Europe. There may be four or five cases in this country, but none of them have been reported except one case," said Dr. Si Pham, the transplant surgeon.The device buys time to find Quarterman a real heart."This has been a lot more difficult than the transplant. It's extremely discomforting," Quarterman said.Quarterman and his daughter, Rajii Quarterman, are optimistic and grateful to have this option."Thanks to you, Dr. Baluki, for his first transplant, and to Dr. Pham for thinking outside the box in looking for another alternative to keep him alive until his next transplant," Rajii Quarterman said.Doctors said that the external pumps do increase the risk of infection and stroke, but that technically, the device could work for years.

And here is the Digg story with all associated heart jokes, haha: http://digg.com/science/Man_Kept_Ali..._Heart_Removed

But this story got me thinking, if we can replace a heart with a machine... why can't we take the brain out of someone's skull who's body was severely hurt, pump oxygenated blood to it, and keep it alive. Then we could tap into the brainstem one nerve at a time and add technology as it's invented, such as a camera with the signals converted so they can feed the image into the optical nerve of the brain, and allow the "person" to see again... whoa. It seems possible. Also, imagine being in that situation, you're still alive and can think normally, but you have no senses (complete blackness), and all you are is thoughts.... might get kinda boring after a while, haha. Try covering your eyes and ignoring all other senses.... imagine being in that state for a while until one day, all of a sudden, vision reappears to you, as the doctors figure out how to interface with that nerve. Then one day you can hear again.... and one by one you get reconnected to the world, only without your body. That would be one hell of an experience.

Why can't we do that now? We have the technology...

**RealBmw 02** · 05-07-2006, 07:56 PM

It's getting to the point where doctors are finding ways to replace everypart of the body. One day it's going to be like taking your car to the mechanic. You will just swap out the malfunctioning organ with a manmade replacement. Kinda trippy

witeshark · 05-07-2006, 09:11 PM

Yeah it's simply way amazing

**Dudesky** · 05-07-2006, 10:06 PM

The way you're thinking, it's impossible. Taking vision for one example, the electrical signals don't just go in and out of the occipital lobe. The signals go through billions of neurons throughout the entire brain before the organ makes any type of decision as to what should happen next. Albeit just as important as the brain's responsibility, the heart has a much simpler role to play.

**komodo** · 05-07-2006, 10:18 PM

Yes, but if you simply connected all the blood vessels and nerve channels that come from the brain to machines, wouldn't it be the same thing? The brain needs oxygenated blood to stay alive, and a machine can easily provide that. What's left that goes into the brain? Just the nerves? There aren't any REQUIRED nerves are there? I mean, usually when a major part of the body gets hurt that feeds nerves to the brain, it's the loss of blood circulation that causes death... not the disconnection of that body part from the brain. See where I'm going with that?

**Dudesky** · 05-07-2006, 10:31 PM

I can see where you're going, but it's extremely more complicated than you're seeing it . . a "nerve" is composed of millions of axons. Each axon is a pathway for one specific function. i.e., a "nerve" is actually a bundle of axons, or pathways of electrical impulses. Given that, yes I can see what you mean, but damn, that's a lot of work

Plus, the neural pathways differ from person to person, so there isn't a standard we can go by to perform the operation efficiently . . it would have to be done manually by surgeon's hands, and we simply don't have that efficiency, nor a blueprint for figuring out how the brain adapts to individual situations. Even in conditions that involve a stroke, the neural pathways will heal themselves in different ways, if they even do at all

**komodo** · 05-07-2006, 10:52 PM

But there has to be a way to flood the end of the nerve with some chemical, then use lasers to "spark" the neural gap and initiate a synapse firing sequence that would do the required task... I don't know enough about neuroscience, but I'm sure there's a way.

(and if a way was found, a multibillion dollar industry would spring up overnight)

**eric_r** · 05-07-2006, 11:06 PM

... wow, "heartless bastard".

witeshark · 05-07-2006, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eric_r

... wow, "heartless bastard".

Oh! You stole my joke!

**eric_r** · 05-07-2006, 11:13 PM

Actually I saw it on a comment posted, hence the quotations.

It's so worthy of reposting that joke though.

**xsperf** · 05-07-2006, 11:18 PM

harry, i dunno if dudesky mentioned this, but really, you want a person walking around with loads of huge machines around him? there is so much precision to the human body its literally quite impossible to make it all synthetic, but that would be cool, maybe give dumb people a brain transplant

**komodo** · 05-07-2006, 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xsperf

harry, i dunno if dudesky mentioned this, but really, you want a person walking around with loads of huge machines around him? there is so much precision to the human body its literally quite impossible to make it all synthetic, but that would be cool, maybe give dumb people a brain transplant

Eventually the technology could be steamlined and made human-size. Basically a robotic body, with a living brain inside.

**Chris** · 05-08-2006, 01:19 AM

y'all are making a bit of a big deal about this. at least, i think y'all are. this surgery was the same as a quadruple heart bypass surgery where they stopped halfway through the surgery and sewed him back up with the machine still installed. I guarantee you that they're using the same machine that they use for quadruple heart bypasses.