"Tick tok tick tok tick tock..."
That was the sound I heard in my head during my grandfather's funeral imagining that his artificial heart was working after his demise.
"Mother, does the machine still work in his body?" "Will he come to life again?"
I kept asking my mother. My repetitive question did not annoy her. She tried to explain that though we did our best and the plastic heart was our last hope to save grandpa's life, grandpa had to go.
"Tick tock tick tok..." time passed...
If my grandfather was sick from heart disease today, he would have more chances to survive. According to BBC News article "Plastic heart gives dad Matthew Green new lease of life" (2011), the lastest technology enabled Mr. Green the patient to recover and live with only plastic heart. It is the good news for patients waiting for heart donors and having their name in a long long queue of heart operation. I'm glad for them but one question poped up in my mind: can we really live with plastic heart? Now, we embrace the unnatural thing to be a part of our body and accept it as our heart. When technology becomes a centre of our life, how do we live with it?
The technology grows so fast nowadays. We have new device everyday. A friend of mine said "Oh my mobile phone is like my body's part." Friends usually makes fun of him; however, it is so true. Philosophers argue about "Do machines and computers have mind?". They doubt about that because machines can think, calculate, decide, etc. like humans; therefore, they may have mind. Some movies e.g. Steven Spielberg's A.I. shows that robots have feelings. On the contrary, humans are in the dilemma of keeping or losing their mind when they make use of machines.
Mr.Green's plastic heart is a four vaults and two pumping chambers device. It was inserted into his chest and was linked with a seven-kilo pump in his bag. From a patient who "could hardly climb a flight of stair"(Plastic heart gives dad new life, 2011) and "was struggling to walk even a few yards"(Plastic heart gives dad new life, 2011), this patient who will be normally dead soon can go for a walk, cook, and live a normal life with his family. It is said to be "the first time a patient was walking the streets of Britain without a human heart". In my view, Mr. Green totally has a human's heart. The way he use technology in his life prolongs his qulity time to be with his loved ones. The medical success of Papworth Hospital has saved the true human's heart, although Mr.Green does not have a real heart at all.
On the other side of the world, a man chewing lignite to show that it is harmless to human's body. I watched TV programmes on Nation channel (Kom Chud Leuk, 2011) a couple nights before I read an article. This man is the manager of lignite factory in Thasai, Samutsakorn province. Pollutions, asmium and impacts on environments cause concerns for local people. Villegers are worried about their health and fishermen are anxious about the lowered number of fish. The arguments of businessmen and scholars were long about two days and they are still unable to find the solution since the benefits and life is a difficult multipled choice exam. Unlike Mr.Green who gains life from artificial invention, the manager consumes inedible stuff and uses technology to steal life from people and nature.
Technology and innovation is neutral thing unlike the users. As technolgy is very useful, it will soon be a heart or a necessary thing, lying in the centre of humans mind. With the artificial heart like this, can we still see the value of life and nature? We will have artificial heart to save it like Mr.Green or adopt unnatural thing and find it harder and harder to have a human's heart?
"Tick tok tick tok..." time flies...
I hope our artificial heart works well.
References
Plastic heart gives dad Matthew Green new lease of life. (2011, 2 August). BBC News. Retrieved August 4, 2011 from http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14363731
"Tanhin...Pol Prayod Laek Shivid ถ่านหิน...ผลประโยชน์แลกชีวิต" Khom Chad leuk. (2011, 2-3 August). Nation Channel
*If you'd like to find more information, the clips of the programme can be seen at http://www.nationchannel.com/
Naya,
ReplyDeleteit was great to see some creativity in your writing here. Less formal response writing is a good place to try out things like that.
Like you, I was surprised when I read the title. I haven't read the article, but your summary gives a pretty good idea of what the article is about. I also share some your responses: if we can now live with plastic hearts, how long will be be until we can live with them permanently? And then an artificial kidney? And lungs? And ...
The mind wonders just how far this process can, and will, go, and how perhaps also how far it should go.
Ultimately, can we replace the brain?
Naya, my grandma has plastic heart same your grandpa. And now she's still alive but not healthy. Many conditions after she added her artificial heart into the body, such as no more using mobile or wireless home phone.
ReplyDeleteAlso my family still doubt like Peter mentioned, how long will be until she can live with it permanently?
Anyways I'm sorry about your Grandpa.
Thank you very much for your comments and sorry for very wide space. I could not fix my HTML.
ReplyDeleteThe artificial heart (in this article) is just for patients waiting for another operation. It is very good but not for a long term use.
Peter, it should be very interesting if we have artificial brain because that is really artificial mind!
P'Golf, thank you. I hope your grandma will be healthy. My grandpa passed away 15 years ago. My grandpa had also other diseases like diabetes and blood pressure. Actually, our family wondered if he really died because the doctor said that the machine lowered its rate sometimes but our relative who was the doctor judged that he's dead himself and we buried him! That's why, I had an idea that he might be alive.