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First pulse. (Score:5, Funny)
First pulse.
Should sleep with a sign on chest/back.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Should sleep with a sign on chest/back.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Or don't try to resuscitate. Wouldn't CPR's compressions be both worthless and potentially damaging?
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Re:Should sleep with a sign on chest/back.. (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Should sleep with a sign on chest/back.. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Should sleep with a sign on chest/back.. (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the giant battery with a cable running into her chest might be enough of a clue for most trained medical professionals to figure out that her case is unusual.
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Re:Should sleep with a sign on chest/back.. (Score:5, Funny)
How about:
"Paramedics/Doctors: USB port for resuscitation and diagnostics is located under left breast. Use clean power supply when connecting to heart."
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Re:Should sleep with a sign on chest/back.. (Score:5, Funny)
Miracle Max: Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.
Inigo Montoya: What's that?
Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.
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Interesting concept... (Score:5, Insightful)
...but I definitely see the need for a special Medic Alert badge for this.
All logic aside.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:All logic aside.. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:All logic aside.. (Score:5, Funny)
For added humor, start yelling out BRAAAIIINNNNNS with a glazed over look in your eyes.
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Any systems depend on a pulse (Score:5, Interesting)
With hundreds of millions of years of evolution, are there any systems in the human body that are dependent on the pulse to function properly?
Re:Any systems depend on a pulse (Score:5, Insightful)
We'll find out pretty soon now, won't we?
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Re:Any systems depend on a pulse (Score:4, Informative)
Most of these artificial heart patients end up dying of strokes, caused of course by blood clots. It's theorized that such clots are easier to form in a pulse-less environment of steady-flow than in an environment where the blood is being "shaken" a bit, ie the pulse with each heartbeat.
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Re:Any systems depend on a pulse (Score:5, Interesting)
Well if we're in there redesigning the system anyways, it seems that there should be some way to filter or shake the blood as it passes through this thing to prevent clotting. Heck in some distant future it'd be interesting to see if it could be designed to filter out unwanted levels things like cholesterol and the like. Or for diabetics, directly monitor blood-sugar levels and inject insulin as needed to keep things under control.
Or with it being in such directly contact with so many of the body's essential systems, perhaps enough monitors could be built in that it could via wifi or the like send signals to the local dispatch office if the blood stops flowing, or if the blood pressure crosses a certain threshold.
Of course I'm playing armchair medical engineer here with no real knowledge whatsoever, but that's what most "futurists" do anyways :D.
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Re:Any systems depend on a pulse (Score:5, Funny)
Apparently not a single organ in the body does serial communication by having it clocked in or out on the rising or falling edge of the pulse.
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Re:Any systems depend on a pulse (Score:5, Funny)
I can think of one organ that reacts visibly to blood pulses. Suck your gut in some time and you may see it too.
What, my toes? I'd have to move my massive genitals out of the way too to see those.
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Re:Any systems depend on a pulse (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Any systems depend on a pulse (Score:5, Funny)
+1 for necrophiliacs who get the best of both worlds.
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Awesome... (Score:4, Funny)
...now I only need to come up with the perfect crime that only a person with no pulse could get away with and I can cash-in on a screenplay for an episode of CSI.
Re:Awesome... (Score:5, Funny)
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Blood pressure issues? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Blood pressure issues? (Score:5, Insightful)
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What about clotting? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm no med student. I'm just curious. I had heard that blood clotting relies on the blood remaining still for a period of time. Normally your pulse still allows for clotting because of the brief period of time that the blood doesn't flow. If you get a cut, you will bleed. In this case if the blood never stops moving will the individual bleed to death from something as simple as a papercut?
But at the same time, if that were the case how did the patient survive the surgery?
Re:What about clotting? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Kinda like a rotary... (Score:5, Funny)
You know,
piston engine go boing boing boing... rotary go mmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
Re:Kinda like a rotary... (Score:5, Funny)
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Does she feel any different? (Score:5, Interesting)
Having always had a heartbeat since birth, I can only assume that I can feel it beat, but am ignoring it. Obviously there are exceptions where I can very much feel and hear my pulse, and am very well aware of it.
She'll never feel that again.
Does she notice?
Re:Does she feel any different? (Score:5, Insightful)
Without the implant, she won't feel anything again. There's no way to put this other than that it's a life-changing event. Many things after this will be different from the way they were before. But generally a life-changing event is to be preferred over a life-ending event.
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Re:Does she feel any different? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll swap with her. I've had an artifical heart valve since very shortly after birth, and every single pulse of my life since I've been old enough to understand the concept of my heart beating is, so long as it's not overly noisy, completely audible. And because it's an internal noise, or because I know what to listen for, it's much easier to pick up than you would think. I'm sitting in an office with about 10 people all working at computers and I can hear it now.
Allow me to assure you that the tick of your own heart beating audibly for every single fucking beat, will slowly but almost certainly drive you mad. I used to sleep with a radio every single night on for a period of virtually 10 years. Even now from time to time I go to bed with headphones on to not bother my wife but still drown out the ticking.
I would swap an audible pulse for no pulse at all in a ... well, heartbeat.
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New rules required. (Score:5, Funny)
Pulse now optional.
The perfect sniper (Score:5, Funny)
Heart Mate II Pump (Score:5, Informative)
She is holding a Heart Mate II pump...most of our patients get this model...and NONE have a regular pulse. Funny since this is just breaking news and St Lukes Heart Transplant do it day in and day out, for a loooong time.
Re:Heart Mate II Pump (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:In a movie (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:In a movie (Score:5, Informative)
This device is bladeless. In fact, one of the major advantages of this artificial heart compared to the traditional ones, is that this damages less blood cells than all other artificial "pulsed" devices. It has other benefits, like smaller size and less energy consumption. Overall, it's a greatly improved system.
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Re:In a movie (Score:5, Informative)
the technical term for those wondering (this is/. afterall) is paristaltic pump [wikipedia.org]
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Re:In a movie (Score:5, Funny)
What are the drawbacks?
Welcome to the afterlife, Jean-Luc. You're dead.
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Re:In a movie (Score:5, Funny)
Welcome to the afterlife, Jean-Luc. You're dead.
No, I am not dead. Because I refuse to believe that the afterlife is run by you. The universe is not so badly designed.
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Re:In a movie (Score:5, Funny)
Welcome to the afterlife, Jean-Luc. You're dead.
No, I am not dead. Because I refuse to believe that the afterlife is run by you. The universe is not so badly designed.
Blasphemy! I should... cast you out, or smite you, or something.
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Re:In a movie (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, it means you're a Slashdotter.
Whether that's good or bad is left as an exercise to the reader.
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Re:In a movie (Score:5, Funny)
What are the drawbacks?
Well, I'm going to have to relax my "anything with a pulse" criterion...
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Re:In a movie (Score:5, Interesting)
Or even more so, how do machines or the nurses/doctors see you're still living if you're temporary unconscious (maybe a few too many beers?) and your pulse is zero. Then they'll declare you dead and dig you to graveyard. Nice place to wake up after a night of partying.
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Re:In a movie (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:In a movie (Score:5, Informative)
According to the MIT write-up, you still have blood pressure. The device would pump more or less blood based on your body's need at the time. What you would NOT have is a systolic/diastolic reading. You'd have one pressure reading. No more 110/70 reading, perhaps a 85mmHg in its place.
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Re:In a movie (Score:5, Insightful)
And how would that be measured (non-invasively)? Blood pressure is read by squeezing off the artery and listening and watching for the various points in the pulse. If there is no pulse, there is no measurement.
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Re:In a movie (Score:5, Funny)
Almost as good as smoking through that little hole in your neck.
Oh damn! I thought that what it was for. A cigarette, after all, fits the hole perfectly.
I just made an appointment with my surgeon to have it fitted for cigars, too.
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Re:Recipe for disaster? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Recipe for disaster? (Score:5, Informative)
Automated external defibrillators, such as the Physio-Control LifePak 500, will only administer a shock if they detect a valid shockable rhythm, i.e. ventricular fibrillation [wikipedia.org]. This AED will not shock anyone or anything that does not have that rhythm present.
Manual external defibrillators, such as the Physio-Control LifePak 12, which may only be used by EMT-I or EMT-P (Paramedics) in my home state, can be used to administer a shock regardless of the presence or absence of any cardiac rhythm. This requires a manual override, and from what I have seen, is used even less often than the precordial thump [wikipedia.org].
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