{"id":102,"date":"2007-01-29T12:19:54","date_gmt":"2007-01-29T11:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/resource.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/01\/29\/bmj-27-jan-2007\/"},"modified":"2007-01-29T12:19:54","modified_gmt":"2007-01-29T11:19:54","slug":"bmj-27-jan-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/01\/29\/bmj-27-jan-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"BMJ 27 Jan 2007"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The unnamed hero of this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/167\">editorial<\/a> on permanent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/167\">ventricular assist devices<\/a> in the UK is Peter Houghton, who, more than six years ago, was dying of heart failure. Stephen Westaby wanted to fit him with the then-experimental Jarvik 2000 LAD, and Philip Poole-Wilson was sent in to explain to him that it might not work.<!--more--> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"458\" height=\"10\" alt=\"More...\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/themes\/advanced\/images\/spacer.gif\" \/>Peter won\u2019t mind me mentioning him by name because he has written a moving book about all this (<em>On Death, Dying,and Not Dying<\/em>) and has his own website (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.peterhoughton.org.uk\/\">www.peterhoughton.org.uk<\/a>). <em> <\/em>Now the two eminent professors who looked after him argue for much wider application of this technology, not just as a bridge to transplantation.<br \/>\nA host of shining angels here appeal to the god of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/191\">academic medicine<\/a> (if he exists) to come to their aid in a beneficent, world-changing programme of teaching and research. But who is this I see, hiding behind their gleaming wings? Beelzebub, stand forth! I know no angel called Richard Smith.<br \/>\nAn Australian population based <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/194\">study<\/a> casts doubt on the dogma that women should not get <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/194\">pregnant<\/a> within two years of treatment for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/194\">localised breast cancer<\/a> \u2013 six months is probably safe.<br \/>\n197   This <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/197\">systematic review<\/a> comparing treatment effects between <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/197\">animal experiments<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/full\/334\/7586\/197\">human clinical trials<\/a> is bound to be used by both sides in this emotionally-charged debate. There is widespread discordance which \u201cmay be due to bias or the failure of animal models to mimic clinical disease adequately<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The unnamed hero of this editorial on permanent ventricular assist devices in the UK is Peter Houghton, who, more than six years ago, was dying of heart failure. Stephen Westaby [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/01\/29\/bmj-27-jan-2007\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-richard-lehmans-weekly-review-of-medical-journals"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>BMJ 27 Jan 2007 - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/01\/29\/bmj-27-jan-2007\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BMJ 27 Jan 2007 - The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The unnamed hero of this editorial on permanent ventricular assist devices in the UK is Peter Houghton, who, more than six years ago, was dying of heart failure. 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