They still use artificial hearts? Something about it sounds so early 80s to me. But I'm glad they're still around and, most likely, have vastly improved since the first one was implanted (and eventually rejected) by a guy in the U.S. now decades ago.
Here's why I'm glad: a 14-month-old boy in the U.K. is surviving on one as he waits for a heart transplant. Little Ollie the only person in Britian to be kept alive on one. He's been attached to it for more than 67 days.
The left side of his heart does not pump properly because the muscles
have become "baggy" and his valves cannot shut properly. Brave Ollie
underwent a seven-hour operation where two tubes were fed from his
heart to the Berlin [the artificial heart] - which is bigger than he is. Ollie was diagnosed with a virus that weakened the left side of his heart, preventing it from pumping effectively.
Most of the "heart" is outside his body (unlike the artificial hearts of yore) and it works by pumping oxygenated blood into his body and diverting deoxygenated blood to his lungs.
His parents are waiting anxiously, of course, for an acceptable donor heart, which will likely come from continental Europe where organ donation is organized around an "opt out" scheme. That is, it is assumed that you want to donate your organs unless you've opted out. In Britain, organ donation is by opting in, as in U.S., which means fewer available.
Side note/question: Presumably little Ollie needs a smaller, kid-sized heart, meaning it would come from a child. In an opt-in system, how do we know whether children are donors, particularly in situations where the parents, who may be donors themselves, have also perished? I mean, if I were in a car wreck with my kids and the worst happened, I'd want every usable scrap of all of us sent out for others.
Are you a donor? Are your kids?
