No pulse: How Saab Turbo inspired a medical revolution

Published 2023-11-17 by Zdravko Anticic

Today there are approximately 20,000 people in the world who do not have a pulse. They are not zombies. They live. And - they live completely normal lives. All thanks to a new type of heart implant. One which doesn’t try to mimic the heart’s behaviour with interval, jerky pumping. Instead, a steady flow is maintained. It’s no ordinary pump. No, it’s a turbine. A turbo implanted in the chest of a human. That pumps blood instead of your heart.

The human body is absolutely fantastic. But it has it’s weak points. The most common cause of death today is heart failure. No wonder - the heart beats 72 times per minute, on average. Not only that, but it moves 5 litres of blood constantly. Across the lifespan of a normal human, which is about 80 years, it will beat at least 2.5 billion times.

Imagine doing 2.5 billion push-ups. 72 every minute. Without stopping to rest. Think it would feel difficult? That is exactly how your heart muscles feel. This is why the heart is the weak link of the body. Even if the rest works well, it all stops if the blood stops flowing. And here is why the turbine becomes so relevant. It is the one that will extend your life by 25-30 years.

In Sweden, it is not a major problem. We move around a lot. We eat healthy food, not so much junk. We last a long time. But in the United States, on the other hand, the lifestyle there is devastating to health. Their hearts and blood vessels are so crammed with fat residue that they are on the ropes by the time they reach 50 years of age. Since everyone wants to live long, some solutions are needed. The turbine heart is the answer.

It is akin to replacing the old fuel pump in your car. Except you are switching to a system completely superior to the one you were born with. Because the turbine is absolutely impossible to be created by nature itself. Why? Well, there are two separate parts. A turbine housing, and a part that spins and drives the blood flow. There is nothing like it in the entire animal kingdom. Our hearts are extremely primitive forms of pumps - two chambers that work together to contract and relax, along with a bunch of valves to create circulation. A constant squeezing, closing and opening. 72 times, each minute.

It is a construction doomed to wear out. And the turbine heart is an ingenious solution to the problem. A much simpler construction. No chambers and valves at all. No, just two parts. A housing, and a turbine. Connected with ball bearings from SKF. An electric motor, and a battery. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Instead of pumping blood in spurts, or intervals, you get an even flow. The side effect is that you no longer have a pulse! At the same time, the risk of cerebral hemorrhage is reduced. “Bumpy” pumping stresses small blood vessels. It is much better to have a constant flow and pressure.

Artificial hearts have been around since the early 80s. Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm was a pioneer in the field. Back then it was about imitating the function and pumping of the heart as closely as possible. But, about ten years ago a group of pragmatists in Texas created a completely new variant. An implant that was infinitely simpler. It was this that became the turbine heart.

The inspiration was taken from Sweden. Saab 900 Turbo. Because all the doctors at the hospital had one. They loved the car. And if that turbo could speed up the car, the same concept should also work on a human. And a few years later, 20,000 people have a Saab Turbo installed in their body. Because it works better than the original.