• Question: is it possible to use a mechanical heart in someone's body if theirs does not work as expected?

    Asked by anon-181149 on 4 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Alex Haragan

      Alex Haragan answered on 4 Jun 2018:

      Yes – but not always.
      During some types of surgery (like heart surgery!) it is necessary to do the job of the heart (pumping blood around the body) by a machine – this is fairly routine.

      Mechanical hearts that simulate the real thing for walking around and having a normal life have been made – I believe as early as the 1980s these have been put into people with varying success.
      However there are quite a few models being developed and although none of them match the brilliance of the original, biological heart – we are getting pretty close!

    • Photo: Jason Chu

      Jason Chu answered on 7 Jun 2018:

      Just following on from Alex! I really don’t know much about how mechanical hearts work, but I do have a colleague here in Manchester who has one.
      He had open heart surgery a couple years ago, and had a mechanical insert placed to help his heart with the whole pumping process.
      This has not been a burden for him at all, as the guy still runs 10-20km runs on a regular basis!

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