Tuesday, October 3, 2017

The Gaping Maw: Segment Three

From the bibliography of A History of Plastics: Vol 2, 2194

Artificial heart
A 40-year-old father has become the first UK patient to receive a portable total artificial heart implant. Before receiving the implant Matthew Green had been critically ill from end-stage heart failure and it was thought he might not survive until a suitable donor heart could be found. However, his symptoms have improved since doctors fitted him with a new artificial heart device.
...An artificial heart is a plastic device designed to replace a patient’s heart ventricles. The ventricles are the two large, lower chambers that pump blood towards the lungs and into the arteries that supply the whole body with blood. To fit the implant the ventricles are surgically removed and plastic tubes are used to replace the valves that would normally let blood in and out of the ventricles. The main section of the device, which features two artificial ventricles, is then plugged into the plastic valves to complete a synthetic heart system....
Incredible 3D Printer Can Make Bone, Cartilage, and Muscle
Using cartridges that are brimming with biodegradable plastic and human cells bound up in gel, this new kind of 3D printer builds complex chunks of growing muscle, cartilage, and even bone. When implanted into animals, these simple fabricated tissues survive and thrive indefinitely.
Medical First: 3-D Printed Skull Successfully Implanted in Woman
Doctors in the Netherlands report that they have for the first time successfully replaced most of a human’s skull with a 3-D printed plastic one — and likely saved a woman's life in the process.


The Gaping Maw: A Tale in Multiple Segments - a multi-part story in scrapbook form for Horrordailies. Go here for Part One.

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