25 Responses

1. Sarah Lloyd says:

   2 December 2012 at 4:55 pm

   This goes to show that we have come a long way with all kinds of surgeries. Back in the Middle Ages surgery was crude, blunt and … PAINFUL! Surgeons had a very poor understanding of human anatomy, anesthetics and antiseptic techniques to keep wounds and incisions from infection. It was not a pleasant time to be a patient, but if you valued your life, there was no choice. To relieve the pain, you submitted to more pain, and with any luck, you might get better. Surgeons in the early part of the Middle Ages were often monks because they had access to the best medical literature, often written by Arab scholars. But in 1215, the Pope said monks had to stop practicing surgery, so they instructed peasants to perform various forms of surgery. Farmers, who had little experience other than castrating animals, came into demand to perform anything from removing painful tooth abscesses to performing eye cataract surgery.

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   • Evan DeFoe says:

     4 December 2012 at 3:11 pm

     Medicine continued to be pretty horrific even during the Revolutionary War period, as more soldiers died from illness than from the combat itself. Since there was no antibiotics at the time, amputation was the main form of preventing the spread to the rest of the body. When someone was shot, doctors used a scalpel to cut to the limb’s bone, and then used small saw to cut the bone. Then, to prevent bleeding, they used a branding iron to cauterize the flesh. Also keep in mind that there was no anesthesia (with the exception of alcohol) meaning the patients were always fully conscience during the operations.
     Needless to say, those were some rather brutal times.

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   • Corey Kelly says:

     4 December 2012 at 6:30 pm

     Ignoring the fact the first comment was copied directly from 10 Excruciating Medical Treatments from the Middle Ages…
     One interesting “treatment” from the middle ages was bloodletting. It was believed that bodily fluid, known as humors, would become excessive and would then need to be balanced to maintain health. Physicians would drain blood to cure their patients. One way that blood would be drained was by using leeches, but it was more common for a vein to be pierced with a blade, and the blood drained into a bowl.
     Bloodletting was one of the most common forms of treatments and was used to treat a variety of illnesses such as asthma, diabetes, and smallpox. Bloodletting was also one of the oldest treatments. It was practiced in ancient cultures including the Egyptians and Aztecs and was continued until the middle-late 1800’s.

     -Corey Kelly

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     • Nick Kalte says:

       10 December 2012 at 1:12 pm

       Bloodletting was the most common medical practice by physicians up until the 19th century, having it be used for almost 2000 years. Now its used to reduce blood pressure. The lower blood volume you have, the lower the blood pressure. It was actually used by the Egyptians, Aztecs, Mesopotamians, Greeks and Mayans in ancient history.

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2. jyoti kaur says:

   4 December 2012 at 10:54 pm

   With the new advances in technology today, I would except the artificial heart to be invented in today’s generation. I am surprised it was invented in 1982. An artificial heart is permanently supposed to replace and act like a real heart. One of the factors to why the first experiment with Barney Clark only lasted 112 days could have to with his age, he was 47 years old and in need of a heart transplant. An interesting fact is Robert Jarvik was the first to design an artificial heart, but William DeVries was the first American surgeon to conduct the surgery. In my opinion, an artificial heart should not be used over a long period. A great time to use an artificial heart is when a person is waiting for a real heart transplantation. The longest-life span with an artificial heart is 1,374 days, so within this time boundary a real heart should be implanted. I also agree, Robert Jarvik is considered a hero. Only these kinds of inventions and discoveries can advance the world.

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   • Keith Rovin says:

     5 December 2012 at 1:58 pm

     I am sure as technology continues to advance, an artificial heart will become a viable permanent solution and may even someday become better than an actual heart. Its hard to believe but look at the eye for example, a filmmaker from Canada lost his right eye and replaced it with a bionic one that allows him to record the things he sees and is also able to stream what he is viewing to the internet for others. It’s insane to even think this can happen.

     Man with robotic eye
     http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/medical-robots/061110-eyeborg-bionic-eye

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     • Gavin Austria says:

       6 December 2012 at 7:39 pm

       Just goes to show how advanced technology is today. Just look and how far the regular desktop has gone throughout the years. now even laptops that is touchscreen with a keyboard. Just recently read the man with robotic eye and I think that is incredible. Makes me wonder what’s going to be invented or made next down the line in the technology world.

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3. William Khleif says:

   5 December 2012 at 3:06 pm

   This posting really shows how much improvement we have made in the medical field over the last 2 decades. The artificial heart that was first implanted in 1982 has been improved and can last much longer now. I believe Robert Jarvik is rightfully considered a hero, because he designed something that has saved many of lives. Just back in May 2012, former vice president Dick Cheney had a heart transplant. During his months of waiting for a transplant available, he was living with an artificial heart. This just shows how important artificial hearts can be. If it were not for medical advances in artificial hearts many of people may have died.

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4. Crystal Heidler says:

   6 December 2012 at 2:28 pm

   In 1967 the first heart transplant took place in South Africa and was performed Christian Barnard in a town called Cape Town. The patient of choice was a 55 year old man who only lived 18 days the transplant. The surgeon performed another heart transplant and that patient lived for an additional 545 days making the total living time 563 days. A New York surgeon by the name of Adrian Kantrowitz performed a heart just a few days after Dr. Barnard and his patient when compared to Barnards only lived a few hours. With thing becoming more and more advanced, heart and liver and other bodily organ transplant are becoming more successful. Patients are living longer with the aid of medication that aids in the presentation of rejection of the organ. THe medicine suppresses the immune system making it less sensitive to the new organs differences. To date the average person that receives a heart transplant generally lives for about 1-3 years depending on the life style, for a Liver transplant, about 30+ years if the liver is in great condition and for a Kidney transplant, life percentage decreases with lifestyle and daily habits, round about life span 3-5 years.

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5. Taylor Joseph says:

   6 December 2012 at 4:35 pm

   Since the first artificial heart transplant in 1982, modern medicine has come along way. In nearly forty years of transplants thousands of lives have been saved. The first artificial heart transplant was only something mankind could have dreamed of. But now with technology, a heart transplant can be thought of as a semi-common event. Clinics throughout the world are working daily towards new advancements with heart transplants making people wonder how far modern medicine will go.

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6. Muna Dakka says:

   8 December 2012 at 10:40 am

   The first animal transplant was carried out by Vladimir Demikhov in 1946 in which he switched the hearts of two dogs. These dogs survived after the operation. Vladimir also replaced another dog’s heart with an artificial metal heart which he had constructed, and he succeeded in keeping the dog alive for five and a half hours. Furthermore, he performed the first lung transplant and coronary bypass using a dog. Moreover, he constructed a two-headed dog by attaching a small dog’s head, shoulders, and front legs to the neck of a large German shepherd. The joined dogs amazingly shared the larger dog’s heart. The conjoined dogs survived for a while.

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7. Muna Dakka says:

   8 December 2012 at 10:44 am

   There are some pictures of the conjoined dogs in this link. http://www.stellasmagazine.com/vladimir-demikhovs-two-headed-dog/

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8. Jessica Linderman says:

   8 December 2012 at 1:25 pm

   It is interesting to also discuss the first heart transplant. As another commenter said, Christiaan Barnard was the first man to successfully complete a heart transplant, though the patient died. As time went on more transplants were done where he patient survived longer.. The next turning point in heart transplantation was the discovery of an immunosuppressant drug by Jean Borel in the mid-1970s. These drugs allow patients o f hear transplant to live significantly longer, as well as allowing more risky transplants to be done. Due to the strides in science the first pediatric transplant was done in 1984 on a four-year old boy. He later had a second transplant and is living a healthy life. It is interesting to look at medical discoveries and the changes they have caused.

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9. Chris Jones says:

   8 December 2012 at 7:06 pm

   Very impressive! Knowing that a retired dentist was the first to do a heart transplant with an artificial heart. This kind of makes me think, if people back in the ancient times knew how to do this. Even though they didn’t have the technology for it, but a lot of people probably could have survived.http://hearttransplant.com/history.html

   here is a brief summary of how heart transplants started and it’s history.

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10. Chris Jones says:

    8 December 2012 at 9:35 pm

    Since the ancient times we have learned a lot through are technology in which the ancient people did not have. Doctors know a days have to know how to do the procedure right and what to use. In the ancient times surgery for them was not fun at all, they couldnt knock you out with anisettes that we have now the most they could do is get you drunk. There was no way for them to stop the pain, the surgery was even more painful than the wound actually was.

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11. Justin Ghannam says:

    8 December 2012 at 10:48 pm

    I enjoy reading about articles like these. It makes me a little bitter that I’m born into an area where the difference between technology to keep me alive now in comparison to what will be there when I’m in old age will be light years apart. I suppose that’s the same for everyone though, although I feel like the technological advancement started as rapidly as it did within the last 25-30 years.
    What’s even more neat is that anyone and anything can make something as neat as this happen. I was doing some reading on Jarvik shortly under a month ago and it turns out here is from an area that is only about an hour away from Wayne county, in the middle of Michigan.

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12. Sara Papp says:

    9 December 2012 at 1:39 pm

    In my research i have found a lot of things about the timeline of medicine, in ancient times surgery’s were not common. They had no knowledge of he human body. As time went on it became more common. When someone had an injury amputation was the main form of preventing the spread of infection. Doctors used a scalpel to cut to the limb’s bone, to stop the bleeding, they used a hot iron or some sort of hot medial over the wound. In ancient times the scalpels they used where described in my research to look like a barber shop knife. Obviously we have come along way since then with anesthesia and knowledge to the human body.

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13. Trevor Corn says:

    9 December 2012 at 2:40 pm

    We have simply progressed far enough that it is surprising that stuff in this calibur isnt invented during this period. Heck, a temporary artificial heart must have been revolutionary at the time.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FLX95d3_2Q

    Then link above is from a small news report about means to keep organs alive outside the body for short periods of time. If such a thing was possible in 1982, there would be no telling how far the medical feild would have advanced by to the year 2012. In ancient times, you were basically screwed if someone couldnt see your injury, as adnvanced veiwing techniques were unavailiable and people resorted to faith and obscene methods like cutting the skull or stabbing the infected area.

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14. Anthony Ibrahim says:

    9 December 2012 at 5:24 pm

    This article really interested me due to the fact that it was the first artificial heart. The heart is the engine of your body and it keeps the rest of your body running. its amazing to see how long of a way medicine studies and operations have gone. its truly incredible that you can get an artificial heart. In a day, your heart pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood. Like any engine, if the heart is not well taken care of it can break down and pump less efficiently, which causes a heart failure. If medicine is this advanced during this age, I cant imagine what is in store for the future, and what more you can possibly discover and study about in the health field.

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15. Justin Shureb says:

    9 December 2012 at 6:02 pm

    It is crazy to think how much technology can change now a days. Seeing this picture being the first artificial heart amazes me and knowing how much it has changed today is great. Prior of getting a heart surgery you have to exercise and have good, balanced diet. This is an important part before you get a heart transplant because the patient has to be in the best condition possible to get one. Doing this will make the patients recovery become easier because it will provide the body with the right nutrients and energy.

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16. Charlie Harrison says:

    9 December 2012 at 7:01 pm

    An amazing article and an amazing event. Technology today has been known, at least to me, to be more time consuming than good. Most technology to my knowledge serves as entertainment purposes and can sometimes be classified as useless: However, events like this one leads me to believe that more technology can indeed be a good thing. Just two days ago, on December 7th, a UCLA Doctor removes a mans heart and replaces it with an artificial one. Stories like this give me hope that a future with more technology can actually be a good thing!

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    • Charlie Harrison says:

      9 December 2012 at 9:14 pm

      In the past, there was an African American by the name of Daniel Williams who preformed open heart surgery in 1893, before technology was as advanced as it is now. He was able to successfully perform it without using the advanced technologies we have today, and that is indeed an amazing achievement to say the least!

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17. leonm11 says:

    9 December 2012 at 10:47 pm

    This is an amazing article and truly a memorable moment to rejoice on. Robert Jarvik is a hero that very little people know about but should be recognized more often. Without this man and his extrodinary invention of the artifical heart many people would be lifeless. This procedure has saved many people and also have kept many people alive while patiently waiting for a heart. This man should go down as a hero in everyones book.

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18. Acacia Farley says:

    9 December 2012 at 11:13 pm

    Since the 1940’s the advancement of artificial hearts have grown exponentially. Early days people hardly lived for more then a month, with early operations. Early surgery survivors lived nearly 2 years, until they passed and started the evolution of the modern day artificial heart. We now look at technology as being a simple thing. We never look at how many little things that we use, were not invented or even thought about inventing in the early days. In the early days hospitals did not have the modern tech that we have now, so many of the operations were very painful, and came with many errors.

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19. Tabitha Watkins says:

    9 December 2012 at 11:24 pm

    Artificial body parts date back to early Egypt. While archaeologists were searching through tombs, they found a three-thousand year old mummy with a wooden foot and leather strapped to it to hold it together. Ambroise Pare made the first prosthetic limb and articificial eyes, but it wasn’t until 1898 when Dr. Vanghetti made a limb to work with the muscle contractions of the human body. Some of the most well known fake limbs people often refer to today were worn by pirates. From peg legs to metal hooks, pirates quite often had to use prosthetic limbs due to all the pillaging and fighting. —-Tabitha Watkins

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