Seriously ill heart failure patients expected to live only a month and ineligible for transplant can get an implant of a permanent artificial heart, U.S. health officials ruled on Tuesday.*Sigh* It seems death is not allowed in health care any longer, but bankruptcy is (don't expect Medicare to pay for this one).
The grapefruit-sized, titanium-and-plastic device -- Abiomed Inc.'s AbioCor artificial heart -- may give patients only a few extra months and costs about $250,000.
Will there be any money left over for the rest of us in 10-20 years?
--Wes
9/6/06: Addendum - Dr. A offers other insights.
1 comment:
A quarter of a million dollars for a few extra months. Seems scary to me. Dr. anonymous just posted on this as well. You and he have about the same thoughts.
What is the purpose of this? Surely it can't be just to give people a few extra months. Can it?
We have become such a selfish society. Its pretty bad when we are to the point of not even allowing our loved ones to die. My dad passed away from coronary rupture following an MI that destroyed the bottom half of his R ventricle. It was a terrible thing, but he would not have wanted to live the life he would have been forced to live. I can't imagine him being dependent on other's for care.
On the other hand my mom suffered for more than a dozen years with Alzheimer's. Heart failure is not my biggest fear, Alzheimer's is.
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