The Tiniest Heart

WBZ's Jordan Rich says even newborns can get a pacemaker now.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Upside with Jordan, A dose of good news.
Because it's a big world out there. You have to
marvel at technology, particularly when it comes to our health.
And here's the story I couldn't pass up. Engineers at
Northwestern University. They've come up with a pacemaker so tiny
that it can fit inside the tip of a syringe
and be injected into the body. It can work for
hearts of all sizes, but it comes in very handy

(00:25):
for the tiny, damaged hearts of newborn babies. The pacemaker
is an implantable device that helps maintain an even heart rate.
This one is smaller than a single grain of rice
and works with a small wearable, wireless device that mounts
on the patient's chest. Still in the testing and clinical
trial stage, it speaks to the crucial importance of temporary
pacemakers during pediatric heart surgeries and for the one percent

(00:49):
of babies born with congenital heart defects. This good news
development is a game changer, and that's the upside with
Jordan WZ Boston's News Radio