Heart With No Beat Offers Hope Of New Lease On Life

Heard this on NPR this morning. This is fascinating.

This is about the PEA, or the pulseless electrical activity.

But Dr. Billy Cohn and Dr. Bud Frazier at the Texas Heart Institute say they have developed a machine that could avoid all that with simple whirling rotors — which means people may soon get a heart that has no beat.

Now these doctors got the grants for this study a few years ago. So this is not the first we have heard of this.
But not having a heartbeat, or pulse, they don't register on an ekg, is a little disconcerting.

But this is the innovative thinking outside of the box that is needed. When we think about life, we think of the heartbeat. If someone has fallen unconcious, it is the first thing we check for.

How do we identify these patients then? And not be treated DOA by emergency medical personnel? Just curious.

But as the program stated, the heart is a complex organ. We as humans, feel the need to replicate it. But the fact is a simple whirling machine works just as well, lasts longer You just don't have the pulse and heartbeat.

Dick Cheney no longer has a pulse. But we all knew that already.

Dick Cheney now pulseless

I wouldn't be opposed to this being used in myself if need be. The only thing I'd worry about is, will the Duracell conk out when i needed it most.

Zombies FTW. [atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/76e2a482735d.jpg[/atsimg]