Download Skipping the Beat The “Beatless” Heart

Skipping the Beat
The “Beatless” Heart
Tyler Blake
Professor Ying Sun
University of Rhode Island
BME 281
“Wings that flap didn’t help mankind fly, so
why must a substitute heart beat like a
natural one? ‘Mother nature did the best
she could’”
~Billy Cohn, researcher at Texas Heart Institute
This past year a 55 year old man from Texas had
the first beatless heart transplant saving him
from a death doctors told him was 12 hours
away; he had no pulse and was technically flat
lined but was not dead.
The normal human heart works on a system using cardiac
muscles:
• Electrical impulses tell cardiac muscles to squeeze
• Blood pushes through each of the heart's four chambers
• The pulse or “beat” allows for blood to circulate through
the body efficiently
Rather than using a “beating” mechanism that would mimic
the body’s heart, Dr. Cohn and Dr. Frazier devised a system
entirely different.
• They interconnected two ventricular assist devices
• The rotors in the devices work together to whirl around
the blood in the device
• The device propels the blood through the vascular
system in a continuous flow
Ventricular Assist Device
• Ventricular assist devices were invented in 1980
• Recently Dick Cheney had one implanted to help
with ventricular failure
• This past year has been the first time a complete
heart was created from two assisting devices.
• These devices connect the ventricles to the aorta
and so help each ventricle push the blood by
push the blood by battery powered rotors.
powered rotors.