Wednesday, May 26, 2010

How Cardiac Device Patients are Like Iron Man

From Salon.com:
Iron Man's powers are generated from an implant designed to keep his weakened heart from failing. Of course, there are differences in our individual circumstances. Tony Stark, the man beneath the Iron Man armor, designed his own implant in an effort to save himself from a piece of shrapnel traveling to his heart. Not only that, he created the device using material provided by his unwitting captors (Asian Reds in the original "Tales of Suspense" comic; Middle Eastern terrorists in the movie). I am not nearly that clever; my device was built by Medtronic, a Minneapolis company that was started in a garage and is now the largest medical device company in the world. We have so much in common, and yet I have so many things to learn from him. Sure he's a little smoother in social situations, and better connected, yet at our core we share something rare. We are both cyborgs.
Heh.

-Wes

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have a pacemaker and I like this (I'm 30). I told my EP last week that I was rather fond of my pacemaker and he looked at me as if I was nuts! But I am. I mean gee, it's only part of my body.