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I only wish the technology were better ten years ago when my father in law passed away. He was on one of these types of machines, but only after he had surgery

by ok_dad 3y ago

I only wish the technology were better ten years ago when my father in law passed away. He was on one of these types of machines, but only after he had surgery and his heart and lungs were already failing for days and his body was weak. If they could have put him on the best and newest machine of today right away, then his body could have recovered a bit before they had to operate to fix his heart valve, which was faulty. I do have to say, at the end when we visited him before they turned the machine off, it was absolutely a horror scene with huge clear tubes with blood flowing through them and the machine was fully clear as well, I assume to let staff catch any clotting early. When they turned off the machine I almost couldn’t help but look at the machine and the blood filled tubing, knowing that my father in law was given a second chance by it even though it failed. I used to have nightmares about the scene I saw there, but now I think of how great it is that we can replace some of the most important organs with machines, even if it’s still limited to hospitals. Morally, we should advance this tech as fast as possible so maybe next people can use these in their homes, or as a backpack or something, then on to artificial organs inside the body. The people going on these machines today are pioneers and the things we learn today will help other down the line even better.

squigz 3y ago
> I used to have nightmares about the scene I saw there, but now I think of how great it is So many people are not able to get over the grief (or fear, or guilt, or a hundred other emotions) that are usually associated with this sort of equipment, so they're forever seen as a sort of necessary evil - perhaps similar to military technology: something we know we have to have and have to develop, but not something we want to use, or embrace. I wonder if more people looked at these technologies and their potential applications with a bit more optimism, how things might advance.
- ok_dad 3y ago
  The only reason I got over it was I worked at a medical device assembly factory and saw firsthand how amazing it was that hundreds of people worked together to design test and build life saving devices. I stopped caring about the blood and started rooting for miniaturization, like how computers my mother used were in rooms and today everything has a computer in it. It’s hard though because our natural and trained response is to be grossed out.

by ok_dad 3y ago

squigz 3y ago

> I used to have nightmares about the scene I saw there, but now I think of how great it is So many people are not able to get over the grief (or fear, or guilt, or a hundred other emotions) that are usually associated with this sort of equipment, so they're forever seen as a sort of necessary evil - perhaps similar to military technology: something we know we have to have and have to develop, but not something we want to use, or embrace. I wonder if more people looked at these technologies and their potential applications with a bit more optimism, how things might advance.

ok_dad 3y ago
The only reason I got over it was I worked at a medical device assembly factory and saw firsthand how amazing it was that hundreds of people worked together to design test and build life saving devices. I stopped caring about the blood and started rooting for miniaturization, like how computers my mother used were in rooms and today everything has a computer in it. It’s hard though because our natural and trained response is to be grossed out.