• Question: My cousin is an engineer making Rolls Royce planes. How similar are those machines to the heart in terms of how they work?

    Asked by 677srge46 to Monica on 15 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Monica Rozeik

      Monica Rozeik answered on 15 Mar 2016:

      I imagine your cousin is working on the turbine engines of planes then? If you look at some artificial devices that help the heart to pump blood they’re quite similar to a jet engine! Both use propellers to move fluid. In the heart it’s blood. In an engine it’s air. Look up images of the Debakey Left Ventricular Assist device and Heart Assist 5 🙂

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