Write a script or storyboard for a television documentary about the future of artificial heart transplants.

Transcription

1 A F 2 L AT : T A S K S H E E T ( L E V E L S 6 8) ROBO HEARTS The first functioning artificial hearts have been made. TASK Are artificial hearts the answer to the transplant shortage? Write a script or storyboard for a television documentary about the future of artificial heart transplants. Use the Artificial Heart Transplants: Information and the Artificial Heart Transplants: Perspectives sheets to help you. Include: Suggest what has influenced the need for artificial hearts Describe or explain how the artificial heart works Explain how scientists worked to design, develop and use artificial hearts Explore the economic, ethical/moral, social or cultural arguments for and against of using artificial hearts Consider the effects of the use of artificial hearts on the patient, their family, doctors, bioengineering companies and society as a whole Make a balanced judgement about the future of artificial hearts, evaluating the economic, ethical/moral, social or cultural implications Key words artificial, bioengineering, cultural, donor, economic, ethics, ethical, heart, implications, morals, organ, tissue, transplant, society, survive KS3 APP LAT: AF 2 TS (LEVELS 6-8)

2 2.A A F 2 L AT: L E V E L L A D D E R ( L E V E L S 6 8 ) ROBO HEART ß What is your target level? Use the level ladder to help you reach it: To get level You might: Describe how the decisions of using artificial heart transplants are made based on economic, social or cultural context. Explain the effect(s) of the artificial heart transplants on society as a whole and the scientific community. Describe how artificial heart transplants have provided evidence for scientific questions. Identify some scientific questions that have come about since the artificial hearts have been used. Describe the science that is used by the artificial heart transplant team. AF2 Suggest the influences on the need to develop the artificial heart. 7.1 Explain how the development of a working artificial heart might change the worldview on organ transplants, organ donation and our ability to make organs. Suggest economic, ethical/moral, social or cultural arguments for and against the use of artificial hearts. Explain how creative thinking allowed the artificial hearts to become better and more effective. Describe ways in which the values of society have lead to the development of expensive artificial hearts. Evaluate the effects of artificial hearts on society. 8.2 Explain the unintended consequences that arose from the first artificial heart transplants. Make a balanced judgement about the future of artificial hearts, evaluating the economic, ethical/moral, social or cultural implications KS3 APP LAT: AF 2 LL (LEVELS 6-8)

3 A F 2 L AT : A C C E S S I N F O R M A T I O N ( L E V E L S 3 6) ARTIFICIAL HEART TRANSPLANTS HUMAN H EART T RANSPLANT There are not enough hearts donated. Not everyone with heart disease gets a new heart. Each year 20,000 people in the world who need a heart transplant do not get one. M AKING T HE FIRST A RTIFICIAL H EART Artificial hearts are very expensive. The artificial heart made by Carmat cost over 60,000 to make. T HE C OMPLETE A RTIFICIAL H EART The patient has their damaged heart removed by a surgeon. The artificial heart is attached. A motor pumps the blood around the body. A battery kept outside the body powers the motor. The Carmat Heart made by a French team Features of the artificial heart: It is made of a special plastic called polyurethane. It is the shape and size of an ordinary heart. It beats like a heart using electronic sensors to control it. The battery needs recharging every 10 hours otherwise the heart will stop. It is covered in a special tissue to avoid rejection. This is known as a pseudo-skin. The anaesthetist makes sure the patient stays asleep and breathing under the aesthetic. The surgeons have to carry out the delicate surgery to attach the artificial heart. During surgery up to 15 nurses assist the surgeon. Before and after surgery they ensure the patient receives the correct medicines This technology is still new and there will be many problems. Particularly blood clots caused by this type of heart. Instead of making expensive new hearts, we should make it compulsory for people to donate their organs when they die. Treat the problem, not the cause. Obesity is the main cause of heart disease. Tackle this and we won t need more donors or artificial hearts. KS3 APP LAT: AF 2 AI (LEVELS 3-6)

4 A F 2 L AT : T A S K IN F O ( L E V E L S 4 6) ARTIFICIAL HEART TRANSPLANTS (1) HUMAN H EART T RANSPLANT H ISTORY 1967 Christian Barnard carried out the first human heart transplant in South Africa. The patient died 18 days later With improving surgery and aftercare, nearly 5000 heart transplants had taken place in the UK alone since Patients have at least 10 years extra life after a transplant About 300 heart transplants are carried out in the UK every year there would be more if more hearts were available. T HE R ACE FOR THE FIRST A RT IFICIAL H EART Each year, it is estimated that 20,000 people worldwide in need of a heart transplant do not get one because of the lack of donors. USA The first artificial heart, the Jarvik-7, was implanted into Barney Clark. He died 112 days later due to massive organ failure. USA In 2001 the first complete artificial heart, AbioCor, was transplanted successfully. Germany a temporary artificial heart was implanted while the patient waited for a donor. It has an external power pack. It cost over 60,000 to make. France The company Carmat developed the first complete artificial heart that adjusts to the patient s activity in T HE C OMPLETE A RTIFICIAL H EART A motor compresses the left chamber to pump oxygenated blood out to the body. At the same time, the right chamber opens to fill with deoxygenated blood. Then the right chamber is compressed to pump deoxygenated blood to the lungs and the left chamber opens to collect oxgenated blood from the lungs. Special sensors detect the body s movements and change the pace of the beat. The Carmat Heart made by a French team Features It is made of a special plastic called polyurethane. It is the shape and size of an ordinary heart. It beats like a heart using electronic sensors to control it. A battery that the patient wears outside the body powers it. This needs recharging every 10 hours otherwise the heart will stop. It is covered in a special tissue to avoid rejection. This is known as a pseudo-skin. KS3 APP LAT: AF 2 TI (LEVELS 4-6)

5 A F 2 L AT : T A S K IN F O ( L E V E L S 4 6) ARTIFICIAL HEART TRANSPLANTS (2) T HE T RANSPLANT T EAM Bioengineers Design, manufacture and test a heart suitable for transplant. Cardiac doctors A team of expert doctors advise the artificial heart engineers, anticipate problems and think up solutions. The Surgeon The surgeon has to carry out the delicate surgery to attach the artificial heart. This can take several hours. Anaesthetist The patient is assessed before, during and after surgery to make sure they stay asleep and breathing under the aesthetic. The nurses A team of nurses look after the patient. During surgery up to 15 nurses assist the surgeon. Before and after surgery they ensure the patient receives the correct medication including immunosuppressants and painkillers. T HE C OMPLETE A RTIFICIAL H EART This technology is still extremely new and there will be many problems, particularly blood clots caused by this type of heart. The artificial hearts cost so much; very few people will be able to afford them. It won t be fair. Instead of investing the money on new and potentially dangerous technology, we should make it compulsory for people to donate their organs on death. Treat the problem, not the cause. Obesity is the main cause of heart disease. Tackle this and we won t need more donors or artificial hearts. KS3 APP LAT: AF 2 TI (LEVELS 4-6)

6 A F 2 L AT : A D D I T I O N A L I N F O ( L E V E L S 6 8) PERSPECTIVES (1) HEART B REAKERS? Jarvik-7 The pneumatic pump actually jolted the whole patient, making it very uncomfortable. The patient was confined to hospital because they were attached to a large machine. Some patients died of blood clots because the blood clotted on the metal and plastic, broke off and caused strokes. Others died of severe infections because the patients had tubes from the heart run to an outside pump, where infection could easily enter the body. AbioCor This heart used smaller hydraulic motors, reducing movement. The heart was made of a special polyurethane and titanium to reduce blood clots, however blood clots still occurred at the joints, killing some patients. To prevent infection, no tubes or wires ran through holes in the patients skin. Instead energy was transferred between an external and internal battery, similar to how electric toothbrushes are charged. AbioCor was twice the size of a normal heart and was heavy, although a smaller version was made. Some patient s bodies rejected the artificial heart, leading to organ failure and death. H EART M AKE RS Scientists who make artificial organs are called bioengineers. The bioengineers who made the Carmat artificial heart where engineers who make Airbus aircraft. Other scientists involved were bioengineers who specialise in plastics and tissues. They made a pseudo-skin that covered the mechanical heart. This special layer hopes to prevent blood clotting and the rejection of the artificial organ. A D OCTOR S VIEW I found it intolerable to see young people - aged 40, 45 or 50 - dying of massive heart attacks without having a prosthesis available to replace their hearts. Alain Carpentier, France's leading cardiac surgeon KS3 APP LAT: AF 2 AI (LEVELS 6-8)

7 A F 2 L AT : A D D I T I O N A L I N F O ( L E V E L S 6 8) PERSPECTIVES (2) A PATIENT S VIEW Without the artificial heart, I would not have lived to see my first grand daughter. T HE C OST OF D ISEASE The World Health Organisation (WHO) claimed in 2004 that the biggest killer worldwide is heart disease. This they predict will rise and almost a third of people worldwide will die of heart disease in Heart disease is known as the Disease of the rich because people in the Western World overeat, get overweight and develop heart disease and diabetes. If everyone who needed an artificial heart had one it would cost an estimated 2 billion a year. Currently, a person with an artificial heart can live for 6-12 months longer than they would without one. W HO TRIES A NEW HEART? Trialling artificial hearts is very risky. The first patient suffered from convulsions, mental changes and eventually total organ failure. The patients chosen for the AbioCor trials were very ill already and only had days to live. All the patients agreed to the treatment. All lived longer than they would have done without the artificial heart. W HO GET S AN ARTIFICIA L HEART? If artificial hearts become reliable, then in the UK, the NHS would have to provide them. Only the hearts are very expensive and the NHS could only afford to provide a few each year. How do doctors decide who gets a heart? A 40-year-old wealthy businessman who is obese with a young family. A single 50-year-old plumber who has inherited heart disease. A married 50-year-old farmer who smokes with grown up children. KS3 APP LAT: AF 2 AI (LEVELS 6-8)