Dick Cheney is alive, but has no pulse

[Ought Six]

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle..._for_many.html

His mechanical heart pump pumps continuously, unlike a normal heart pump rhythm that gives us our pulse.

Note: Please save the jokes and anti-Cheney hate spew for another thread, m'kay?

[Feather]

What I didn't see in the article is, does the patient have to wear the vest at all times since the battery is in it? How would someone wearining it shower? Maybe I missed something.

Glad to hear there is something out there to help people live better lives.

[Twoolf]

Technologies like this are why I can't afford Health insurance. I know it sounds really cruel, but he should have been dead years ago. Hundreds and hundred of thousands of dollars makes no sense to preserve one life for a couple years. As a society, we have got to be more pragmatic about our application of health care technologies. The profit motive is just too strong a force to beat. Flame away if you must, but this kind of stuff makes no sense. Just because it can be done does not mean it should be done. They are not living better lives, just postponing the inevitable.

[dharma]

Originally Posted by Twoolf

Technologies like this are why I can't afford Health insurance.

Doubtful.

Originally Posted by Twoolf

I know it sounds really cruel, but he should have been dead years ago.

The great majority of us should have been dead years ago, but antibiotics, vaccines, decent sanitation, and technology have seen to it that we weren't. Each of us, of course, is welcome to forgo these things if he chooses.

Originally Posted by Twoolf

Hundreds and hundred of thousands of dollars makes no sense to preserve one life for a couple years.

Of course they do, if he can afford it. Yes, insurance probably pays, but I promise you the uncovered costs are very high, and I'm sure Mr. Cheney is paying them. In any case, protecting us from unexpected calamity is what insurance is all about.

Penicillin was once so precious that urine from treated patients was collected and residual drug was extracted from it, to be administered again. Now a course of penicillin is a few bucks. What a few benefit from today, we all benefit from tomorrow. I can remember when it was a very big deal to order a CT scan; now they're routine.

Originally Posted by Twoolf

The profit motive is just too strong a force to beat.

Thank God. In this, as in all progress from the beginning of time, the profit motive is our best friend.

Originally Posted by Twoolf

Just because it can be done does not mean it should be done.

Indeed. Put away that silly machine, Mr. Ford! Quit playing with that damn mold, Dr. Fleming!