Just seven years ago, the Jarvik-7 artificial heart was being cheered as the model of human creativeness. The sight of Barney Clark-alive and conscious after trading his diseased heart for a metal-and-plastic pump-convinced the press, the public and many doctors that the future had arrived. It hadn’t. After monitoring production of the Jarvik-7, and reviewing its effects on the 150 or so patients (most of whom got the device as a temporary measure) the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded that the machine was doing more to endanger lives than to save them. Last week the agency cancelled its earlier approval, effectively banning the device.
就在七年前，Jarvik-7人造心脏被誉为人类创造力的典范。Barney Clark用他生病的心脏换了一个金属和塑料泵后，还活着，意识清醒，这让媒体、公众和许多医生相信，未来已经到来。事实并非如此。在监测了Jarvik-7的生产情况，并审查了其对150名左右患者的影响（其中大多数患者是作为临时措施获得该设备的）后，美国食品和药物管理局得出结论，该机器对生命的危害大于对他们的挽救。上周，该机构取消了早些时候的批准，实际上禁止了该设备。
The recall may hurt Symbion Inc., maker of the Jarvik-7, but it won’t end the request for an artificial heart. One problem with the banned model is that the tubes connecting it to an external power source created a passage for infection. Inventors are now working on new devices that would be fully placed, along with a tiny power pack, in the patient’s chest. The first sample products aren’t expected for another 10 or 20 years: But some people are already worrying that they’ 11 work-and that America’s overextended health-care programs will lose a precious 5 billion a year providing them for a relatively few dying patients. If such expenditures cut into funding for more basic care, the net effect could actually be a decline in the nation’s health.
召回可能会伤害到Jarvik-7的制造商Symbion股份有限公司，但不会终止对人造心脏的要求。禁用型号的一个问题是，将其连接到外部电源的管道为感染创造了通道。发明者们现在正在研制新的设备，这些设备将与一个微型电源组一起完全放置在患者的胸部。第一批样本产品预计在未来10年或20年内不会出现：但一些人已经担心它们会起作用，美国过度扩张的医疗保健项目每年将损失25亿至50亿美元，为相对较少的垂死患者提供这些产品。如果这些支出让更多的基本医疗服务资金减少，那么净影响实际上可能是国家健康状况的下降。
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