Artificial Heart

BBC Learning English

6 Minute English

A new lease of life NB: This is not a word for word transcript

Alice: Finn: Alice: Finn: Alice: Finn: Alice: Finn: Alice: Hello, I'm Alice.

And I'm Finn.

And this is 6 Minute English! This week we’re talking about an amazing scientific achievement –it’s called a total artificial heart.

That’s a heart that’s made completely artificially –in fact it’s made of plastic. Something artificial is something that isn’t real.

This total artificial heart has given a new lease of life to a patient in the United States – so before we find out more, Finn, I have a question for you. Which of these creatures has the slowest heartbeat? Ready?

OK, I’m ready!

A, an elephant, b, a human being or c, a dog.

Hmm –I’m really not sure about that. Do different size dogs have different heartbeats I wonder, Alice?

I don’t know! I only know which of them has the slowest heartbeat and I’ll give you the answer at the end of the programme. So let’s find out more about this total artificial heart. Here’s heart doctor, cardiologi st Dr Doug

Horstmanshof talking about his patient, Troy Golden, a pastor from the United

States who was born with a serious heart condition.

Insert 1: Dr Doug Horstmanshof

He suffers from a disease called Marfan's syndrome that he was born with. Physically, He wasn't even able to get out of bed anymore, could barely bear weights, could barely breathe comfortably. Emotionally, mentally, spiritually - he had reached a point so low that most of us can't even imagine.

Alice: Finn: Alice: Finn: Alice: Dr Doug Horstmanshof says his patient suffered badly from his disease. He had reached a point so low that most of us can’t even imagine.

A point so low –a condition that is so bad you can’t imagine things getting any worse.

Troy Golden was physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally exhausted. He had been put on a list for a heart transplant in January 2010 but couldn’t find a donor.

A donor – somebody who gives you something, in this case a human heart. Somebody who donates a heart or a liver or kidney is called an organ donor. And Troy’s heart was in such a bad condition a normal heart pump wouldn’t work for him, so Dr Horstmanshof decided to do something incredible in September 2010. He removed his patient’s heart completely and replaced it

with a plastic heart – the total artificial heart. It contains valves, a pump and also batteries to keep it powered.

Finn: Alice: So that was September 2010 – Troy Golden has had his new heart for several months now. How has it been functioning?

Let’s hear what he says.

Insert 2: Troy Golden

Yeah, I really have got to the point that I don't even really notice it, other than it's loud. So... I think for my wife it feels, to her, she can hear it beating so she knows I'm alive, so it's very comforting to her.

Alice: Finn: Alice: Finn: Alice: Troy Golden says his wife can hear the heart beating, and she finds the sound very comforting.

Comforting – it makes her feel safe and secure.

And Troy Golden says he’s got to a point where he doesn’t really notice his new heart.

He’s got to a point where he doesn’t notice his new heart, which means he’s got used to it.

Another doctor, Dr Kevin Fong, a Consultant Anaesthetist at University College Hospital in London, says the total artificial heart is almost unbelievable – he calls it mind-blowing.