15-Year-Old Boy Fitted With Robotic Heart

An anonymous reader writes "What do you do when a 15-year-old boy is close to death and ineligible for a heart transplant? If you're Dr. Antonio Amodeo you turn to an artificial solution and transplant a robotic heart, giving the boy another 20-25 years of life. The Italian boy in question suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which rapidly degenerates the muscles and eventually leads to death. Having such a disease renders the boy ineligible for a heart transplant, meaning almost certain death without an alternative solution. Dr. Amodeo found such an alternative in the form of a 90-gram, fully-robotic heart that took 10 hours to fit inside the boy's left ventricle. It is a permanent solution offering as much as 25 years of life and is powered by a battery worn as a belt."

Comments

Re:25 years is permanent?

[mark-t]

No argument on that point, but I would think that a medical solution that qualifies as "permanent" ought to be one that would at least have the capability of lasting long enough for a normal human life span. To that end, this is not a permanent solution, it is a stop-gap measure. What if his condition can be cured before he dies? The heart is still only good for no more than 25 years.