Artificial hearts; Paving the way for a new mindset for heart transplants.

The proposition of an artificial heart has always been one of reverence and fear. A thinking machine with independently moving parts, solely responsible for keeping the human soul tied to the earthly body. Pretentious and melodramatic of me to open that way, but cosmically, it's what we're dealing with here. I mean shit, look at that thing. It has every quivering appeal of an early 1980's clear-bodied engine, complete with steel piston covers, but it goes inside of a human being, rather than a mouthwatering hotrod. With such upgrades available, why would anyone be satisfied with their own, fleshy stock engine? Personally, the immortality that would come from having such an anomaly inside of me would probably some sort of karmatic forces bananas, seeing as by all logical means I should have been dead five years ago. But that's a story for another time.

I've seen artificial valves, the first of them, actually. One of my patients that I had as a clinical nursing student told me that his metal valve was the first of it's kind. I looked it up, and ironically this surgical advancement came in the year 1964... Wells should have been more concerned about the possiblity of cyborgs than power-crazed political parties, it seems. Anyhow, I could have chilled with this guy my entire shift if I could have, because not only was he incredibly healthy (in for a routine cardiac cath check, if my memory is correct), but you could hear the valve from a foot and half away. A soft metallic click, almost like a nervous person with a pen, repeatedly making the ball point go in and out in a steady rhythm. It was absolutely fascinating. Before they had artificial valves, they used animal parts who had the same blood type as the patients, and were similar in genetic makeup. Ideally of course human valves are prefered, then primates (which I'm certain PETA has kittens over), and the more commonly used pig and cow valves. The trouble with the fleshy valves are that they not only suffered the wear and tear from their previous owner, but are now subjected to whatever lifestyle that their new owner chooses. Essentially, it's a band-aid fix. Artificial valves are much more practical. It's like starting over with newer, better equipment. Super cool.