This Tech Heart Saves Lives
November 8th, 2007 Posted in Technology
This technological heart saves lives! A story on Utah’s ksl.com is reporting their local hospital, Primary Children’s Hospital, have successfully “hooked up the smallest artificial heart pump into the smallest patient…” an 8 month old named Kaidence McCall Stephenson who is doing wonderfully.
“This technology offers potential for significant improvement over our other types of support we’ve been able to use so far,” explained Dr. Madoline Witte of the mechanical circulatory support department at Primary Children’s Medical Center.
We have gone a far cry further technologically in the medical field alone than the generation before us could have even imagined. With continued research, this same pump will shortly be fully implantable, and the size of four stacked quarters. The pump is called a Berlin Heart, and if you visit their website, the first thing you see is a message stating, “Our products are not FDA approved.” But I am not sure that really matters to little Kaidence or her family… except I am sure her insurance isn’t covering anything!