The Key to an Artificial Heart ... and Open-Heart Surgery
Scientists have been trying to pull blood out of the body and put it back in again since the early 1800s, but bypass machines haven't been easy to get right. Hosted by: Michael Aranda ----------...
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[♪ INTRO] When you think about it, it’s kind of mind-blowing that open-heart surgery is even a thing. In most of these surgeries, doctors crack open the patient’s rib cage and literally stop their heart, sometimes for hours at a time. And it’s only possible thanks to the heart-lung bypass machine, a device that keeps you alive by basically pumping your blood and breathing for you. It’s essentially an artificial heart and a set of lungs. But it’s more than just a pump and some oxygen. Scientists have been trying to pull blood out of the body and put it back in again since the early 1800s, but it took until the 1950s before they figured out how to build a bypass machine safe enough for actual surgeries. And they’re still tweaking the desig...
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[♪ INTRO] When you think about it, it’s kind of mind-blowing that open-heart surgery is even a thing. In most of these surgeries, doctors crack open the patient’s rib cage and literally stop their heart, sometimes for hours at a time. And it’s only possible thanks to the heart-lung bypass machine, a device that keeps you alive by basically pumping your blood and breathing for you. It’s essentially an artificial heart and a set of lungs. But it’s more than just a pump and some oxygen. Scientists have been trying to pull blood out of the body and put it back in again since the early 1800s, but it took until the 1950s before they figured out how to build a bypass machine safe enough for actual surgeries. And they’re still tweaking the desig...
