Haemair envisions external prosthetic lung and respiratory aid
By Darren Murph 
posted Jan 1st 2009 4:03PM
posted Jan 1st 2009 4:03PM
We're not exactly sure how we feel about an external lung (okay, we're completely grossed out, but we're a bunch of pansies when it comes to this stuff anyway), but a Welsh company is looking to introduce one such device in order to aid those with breathing problems. Haemair's Respiratory Aid and Prosthetic Lung would theoretically be worn around the belt and incorporated with a "complete prosthetic lung that will employ no electrical or mechanical parts." By being external, it enables it to be easily maintained, and the simple reversibility is important for "treating emergency and acute cases for which the device might be needed for no more than hours or weeks." As of now, the company is still developing the final product, but just as soon as it can establish that maintenance-free operation is feasible over the long-term, consider the game decidedly "on."[Via medGadget]
MWAHHHHH!
Next time, please floss.
This is FANTASTIC.
Now I don't have to quit smoking ~!!!!!
flashpoint you asshole
your killing everyone else as well
.......
I don't think anybody gets in breathing range. He does stab people though so you're technically correct.
You're damn right I Do !!!!!
Careful there... point that sharp wit of yours away from people's faces
hehehe so...sorta like darth vader?
This could be made to look like a mobile phone case. Next well see a dialysis implant with a bottle on the belt made to look like Gatorade, except it mysteriously refills itself...
And if it gets knocked off that belt somehow and the hoses rip, you have your entire blood volume spraying all over the place?
(Though blood loss might possibly not be your primary concern, when your respiratory "organ" is lying in a thousand pieces on the floor in front of you, burping the last remainders of oxygenated life juices onto dusty city concrete)
I am NOT going through airport security with that thing. I'd have to hold my breath until the next mail day. Oh, wait...
lol, how much of a talking point would that be? 'so is that one of those money holders?' , "no its my lung", 'oh'
Just forget all of this and work on those damn stem cells.
i think this is great news for people with long issues. Not gross at all. This could actually save many lifes.
lung*
lives*
what if you're in a line and the person in front of you fartz? Wouldn't you just be more directly suffocating yourself from methane gas?
And here I am using my lungs like a sucker!
Early Darth Vader tech in the making...
A wonderful idea.
My father died of emphysema, and spent the last 2 years at home hooked up to a oxygen-generating machine. He got used to it, but always resisted using the portable oxygen bottles mostly due to embarrassment.
Yes, I know, it was something he eventually overcome...sort of. Something like this, strapped around his waist, would not have given him more time, but certainly more 'lifestyle' (how I hate that expression) in the ability to go out more.
Good stuff. This is the sort of new tech I really enjoy.
"We're not exactly sure how we feel about an external lung (okay, we're completely grossed out..."
But that's how trees do it.
First artificial lungs
Next artificial gills
I would give a kidney for that. Right now, I don't think I'm joking either!
I could see this becoming as commonplace as the automatic insulin pumps that many people now wear. Very cool technology indeed.
Finally, I can clear out my crappy obsolete organic lungs and take advantage of all that space around my heart. I think I will personally use it for storing cookies for later consumption.
It is physically impossible to have such a small device deliver enough oxygen and remove CO2 to/from you blood on itself, it can aid, if you move very slow, after all a human lung is pretty efficient and it takes a lot of space, simply because you need surface to handle gasses.
Illustrated by their simplistic drawings on their site where 'another variant' has two huge ones sitting in your lungs. (Which in their drawings have no micro capillaries so even then won't give you more than 15% of normal capacity is my guess.)
Look at a radiators in your car or computer if it has watercooling, even those do an effort to maximise surface to be efficient in a more complex way that this drawing http://www.medgadget.com/archives/img/4353443rt3.jpg
Frankly I declare anybody that tries this first as being stark raving mad, and I don't see this pan out to something halfway usable the coming 50 years, but they'll learn things trying though.
I didn't even touch upon the known issues with putting foreign materials in a human body and the reaction of the body to them, this illustration is just too ridiculous for words in how far away from reality it is: http://www.medgadget.com/archives/img/4353443rt2.jpg
What about the cars catalytic converter ? Its quite small.. the air can flow fluently and the material packed can actually cover a football field.
With all this nanotechnology I wouldn't be surprised if it could be as small as you one lung only. the are sure other issues like how many heat it could cause and other stuff like that so you won't die from fever or something.
So I don't really think that size is an issue.
Natural longs are already highly optimized (evolution you know) and have a huge surface area, that's my point you can make inefficient things smaller, but can you make efficient ones too? And seeing the drawings they use it's all just fanciful dreaming not based on reality.
Perhaps the article and official site both oversimplify what they have, but if so they do a piss poor job convincing investors, which is what they are going after.
The about page says about one of them:
"He is shortly to submit for a PhD in Nanotechnology. His work includes developing techniques for culturing cells for wound healing. He has relevant experience in developing biomimetic surfaces and antithrombogenic surfaces."
So he should have some knowledge about the issues with blood and placing devices in the body, but then why such a 'BBC-science' style page?
The whole thing is highly dubious in my view, one of those 'just give us a billion and then we'll start to check out if this is at all practical' schemes, but here's some imaginary drawings.
Good luck to them, there's a sucker born every minute and maybe they'll hit it rich.
I know someone with lung cancer and will die within the year. He may be in his last 3 months, and it's too bad that this invention isn't progressed any further. Kemo wasn't helping too well and he's too thin to do kemo again. :/
It's chemo not kemo, chemo is short for chemotherapy 'a treatment of disease by chemicals'.
I mention it because I'm sure you'll discuss this more often seeing it weighs on your mind, not because I care much myself that much how you spell it.
I'll take on of those and the artificial heart, please.
Great, now one more scapegoat for fartings....my dogs will celebrate this.