Bolivian women knit parts for hearts

Bolivian women knit parts for hearts(bbc.co.uk)

101 points by morpheous 10 years ago | 10 comments

mfoy_ 10 years ago |

>"The most important thing is that we try to get really really simple solutions for complex problems," Dr Freudenthal told the BBC.

I still think the coolest part is that this knitted thing is inserted into your groin and it ends up unfolding in your heart.

bpg_92 10 years ago |

I used to work there as an engineer, Dr Freudenthal was by far the best person I've ever known.

Mz 10 years ago |

This minimally invasive approach also helps to avoid cultural barriers to treatment: manipulating a heart is considered an act of desecration on the human soul by some indigenous communities in Bolivia.

"By not operating with an open heart" says Dr Freudenthal, "We are also respecting the will of many patients who would not want their children to be operated otherwise."

The concept and entire article are both nifty.

Asbostos 10 years ago | |

It may have practical short term benefits but bending medicine to suit culture is not generally great. If somebody invented a way to prevent measles without a vaccine. It might be a good idea but not for the reason that it respects the will of parents who don't want their children vaccinated for "cultural" (i.e. superstitious) reasons.

dragonwriter 10 years ago | | |

> It may have practical short term benefits but bending medicine to suit culture is not generally great.

Medicine treats people, and people have culture. Adapting medicine to address cultural concerns is potentially as beneficial as any other adaptation to the actual patient you are trying to treat, rather than some idealized patient that doesn't actually match the one that's in front of you.

venomsnake 10 years ago | | |

Also true about bending rules to accommodate religion - after all it is a choice. But actually we do it all the time with disastrous effects.

eric_the_read 10 years ago |

I wonder if this, or a variant, would be appropriate for septal defects? My daughter had open-heart surgery at a very young age (~11 months) due to an atrial septal defect. It would be astounding if this were a viable option to avoid such drastically invasive surgery.

akiselev 10 years ago | |

I was born with the same defect and had noninvasive heart surgery to close it over a decade ago, shortly after the procedure was approved. I'm not sure it can be done for toddlers, though definitely at a young age (I was 12).

I don't remember what it is called (I believe it's a mini thorocatomy) but they used a camera through my esophagus and a catheder inserted through the vein in my leg to inject the device to close the hole with no open heart surgery, only a few days recovery time in the hospital, and a few months before I was finally able to play most sports.

feld 10 years ago |

My dog had this procedure done when he was a puppy which saved his life. The standard procedure is to crack open the dog's chest and tie this pathway off. This is the old way of doing it; we don't do this to humans anymore as there are a lot of risks involved and it takes a long time to heal. The much more expensive but safe procedure is to go through the femoral artery. He now has a platinum coil in his heart and no longer has a femoral pulse because they tie it off.

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/pda/

pen2l 10 years ago |

Holy shit, that is awesome.