From: CurtAdams@aol.com
Date: Tue Jul 03 2001 - 19:44:12 MDT
In a message dated 7/3/01 2:24:22 PM, hal@finney.org cites Abiomed:
> "Every patient will probably die on the AbioCor," he said. "We need
> to understand that, with this new technology, we may have failures."
This is a very mild statement; AbioCor isn't going to make them
immortal, so they will die; they're not transplant candidates (by selection)
so they won't get new hearts. So they die on AbioCor.
now Hal himself:
>It's sobering that this technological advance only buys an expected 30
>days of life. But it is good to see that the CEO is so frank about the
>state of the art, in these days of hype and PR.
It's nice; but he may just be setting expectations low. The Jarvik-7 was
painted as a failure, but it kept one patient alive 2 years; not too bad for
end-stage heart failure. IMO the Jarvik would have been quite useful if
it hadn't produced so many strokes. They can barely miss +30 days so
if the populace accepts this hurdle they've already won.
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