![]() “There are many poor countries and poor people who cannot afford to have the operation,” he says. There, in 1977, he saw many people with rheumatic valvular heart disease who would die because they could not afford a heart valve made in America or in Europe. ![]() Or it can be used to allow the natural heart to recover after being “stunned” by severe injury to the heart muscle due to inflammation or heart attack, and following cardiac surgery when the patient’s heart muscle temporarily fails to work even though the operation was successful.ĭr Chang's ambitious project has its roots in one of his frequent visits to China. The Australian heart will enable patients to survive for a limited period, possibly for months, while they await a heart transplant (almost 20 per cent of people on the waiting list die before their turn comes). The Australian heart sits outside the body and does part or all of the work of the natural heart, but does not physically replace it. The Australian heart differs from its predecessors, the best-known being the US-built Jarvik-7, which sits inside the chest and replaces the natural heart. ![]() Working with a small Australian engineering company, and one of the best medical brains in China - the surgeon who designed and built China’s heart-lung machine - Dr Chang's team solved problems insurmountable to others, and has successfully completed a series of animal experiments with their heart. Dr Chang, the pioneer of Australia’s successful heart transplant program, sees the heart becoming a standard piece of equipment in cardiac surgical units.Īfter three years’ research and five prototypes, Dr Chang believes his heart is the most economical (he dislikes the word “cheap”) and the best in the world. Before long, it will become a typical hospital scene, following the successful construction of an artificial heart by Dr Victor Chang and his team of researchers at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney. Within days, the man will sit up, eat, talk - and watch his own blood flow from the plastic heart, through the tubing and into his body, bypassing his own useless heart, still beating in its place but redundant. It is an artificial heart, pumping life at 80 beats a minute. Its job is being done by a small, cone-shaped device strapped to his stomach. Wires taped to his chest pick up a racing heartbeat, yet the heart is no longer sustaining life. THE PATIENT IS LYING ON his back, eyes closed, the life-giving machines blinking and humming in the bright light.
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