Last night, I re-published an article from the Star Tribune which spoke about University of Minesota Medical School Vivisector Dick Bianco: “The school raised security around one of its researchers after an animal activist group singled him out on its website.”
In fact, Negotiation is Over did not “single out” this animal abuser; he was originally “singled out” by the Star Tribune. I simply choose to address the subject of animal torture free from euphemisms and speciesist rhetoric. Following is the subject matter that Bianco fears will repulse the public… vivisectors fear transparency. Taxpayer-funded grant money will inevitably dry up as soon as the the public understands that “animal research” is synonymous with a Frankenstein chamber of horrors.
In this video, Dick Bianco mutilates the aortic heart valve of a sheep and and admits that it is the clinical trail phase with human subjects “where we see if it works.” Nonetheless, the following article published by the University of Minnesota’s mndaily.com explains the procedure that at least 15 – 20 helpless sheep were subjected to:
Dept. tests new techniques, devices for human use (March 11, 2009)
In a small but brightly lit operating room, only a small patch of the patient, about six inches wide, was visible, and a casual observer probably wouldn’t have noticed the hooves dangling from the end of the operating table.
Dick Bianco and his team were working to replace the patient’s aortic valve Wednesday, but they weren’t doing it because of heart disease or a genetic condition. Bianco heads the University of Minnesota’s experimental surgical services department, which tests new devices and techniques to ensure they are safe to be used later in humans.
Sheep are used to test the aortic valves because they mimic the pattern of humans on an accelerated level, Bianco said. The procedure also meets the requirements set by the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health — if the procedure is successful in sheep it will open the door for clinical trials in humans.
In six months, the 15 to 20 sheep that have undergone the surgery will be checked and have parts of the valve replaced, having mirrored five to 10 years in a human system, he said.
During the surgery, Bianco’s team put the procedure on hold twice to push cold fluids down the coronary artery every 20 minutes in order to help keep the heart preserved while the body was on bypass.
The hour-long procedure climaxed with the patient’s heart restarting after being brought off bypass — the heart-and-lung machine that pumped blood during the surgery.
Where “heart surgery really was invented”
Still smarting from nearly $1 million in losses after a break-in by animal rights extremists in 1999, Bianco’s laboratory stresses security and the important role the animals play in ensuring the safety of human subjects in clinical trials.
The department has developed or tested most of the heart valves currently in use today, he said.
“It’s a laboratory where 40, 50 years ago, heart surgery really was invented in,” Bianco said. “Its main role is to teach residents and faculty, explore new surgical therapies and techniques, and to look at new devices.”
Bianco’s work specifically focuses on cardiac procedures, like the aortic valve replacement.
The aortic valve is located between the aorta and the left ventricle of the heart and pumps oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.
Larry Blankenship, CEO and chairman of ValveXchange, Inc., the company that developed the new valve Bianco implanted Wednesday, said he specifically chose the University’s lab because of their history with testing heart valves for use in clinical trials.
The new valve aims to offer another option to patients in need of a new aortic valve.
Currently, he said, younger patients are usually given a mechanical valve which requires a lifetime of anti-coagulation medications (blood thinners), and as a result, a sedentary lifestyle. Older patients usually choose a tissue valve, either a porcine or bovine valve.
But the tissue valves tend to wear out in 10 to 15 years, requiring subsequent surgeries, which get riskier each time.
About 300,000 to 350,000 heart valves are replaced each year, Blankenship said, and more than half are aortic valve replacements.
The new valve, which recently won a “Technology Innovation of the Year” award from California-based Frost and Sullivan, has a permanent base that connects to a tissue “leaflet” that can be replaced through a minimally invasive surgery, rather than the more dangerous open heart surgery, Blankenship said.
The surgery Wednesday was performed by cutting an opening into the aorta then making a ring of stitches where the new valve would sit. Bianco then parachuted the base of the valve down the strings and sewed it into place before setting the new valve leaflets.
Peggy Norris, the lab’s manager, said the sheep would be able to sit up with its legs curled underneath the same day of the surgery and stand up by the next day.
The lab’s work with animals is “heavily watched and regulated,” she said. The University also has a team that sees research animals through their post-operation care and recovery, she said.
After about a week or so of recovery, the patient would be moved to the University’s recovery farm, she said.
Bianco said a number of sheep will also be implanted with a control device, or a valve that’s already FDA-approved, so they can compare the progress of the new-valve sheep to those with the control.
— Emma L. Carew is a senior staff reporter.
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Keep up the good work, Dr. Biano! STAY SAFE!!
Camille I must be missing something here, I see no cruelty, no torture, no Frankenstein’s lab.
I see the nose of a sleeping sheep who is feeling no pain, in fact is totally oblivious to what is going on.
Please explain to me what I am missing.