Informative Speech Outline
Example
Introduction
I.
II.
III.
Attention getter: Imagine if you had a family member in need of a heart transplant
and you were told they may not receive a donor heart in an appropriate amount of
time to save their life. Maybe you will be told there is not enough hearts donated for
your parent, sibling, or maybe even your child to receive a heart.
Listener relevance: According to the Texas Heart Institute website, included on the
Regenerative Medicine Research page, 5 million Americans are living with heart
failure and 50,000 people die each year awaiting a heart transplant.
Preview of Points: Today we are going to explore the origin of the ghost heart, its
uses, and the future of the ghost heart.
Body
II.
First, let’s discuss the origin of the ghost heart.
a. According to the Texas Heart Institute website, under director profile, Dr. Doris
Taylor created the ghost heart in 2008. The same source states, Dr. Taylor is the
Director of Regenerative Medicine Research at the Texas Heart Institute. The
Texas Heart Institute was founded in 1962 by Dr. Denton Cooley. The institute is
dedicated to the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and is affiliated with St.
Luke’s Medical Center and the Texas Children’s Hospital.
b. A ghost heart is described as merely the scaffolding for the heart, according to an
article titled “Ghost Heart” under the healthfit section on the Cleveland.com
website, which is a news and information website for the state of Ohio catering to
over 5 million users each month. This website states this scaffolding supports the
heart much like two-by-four’s support a house.
c. In order to achieve scaffolding, or a ghost heart, a series of steps are required.
First, according to the same source, a heart is soaked in a detergent solution,
created by Dr. Taylor, to wash away all the cells of the heart until only the
scaffolding remains. Then, millions of stem cells are injected into the washed
heart. Stem cells are defined by the Texas Heart Institute website as cells that are
able to renew or self-generate. After being injected with the stem cells, the ghost
heart, according to Cleveland.com, is then placed in a bioreactor. The same
source describes a bioreactor as a box that contains artificial lungs and tubes that
will supply the ghost heart with oxygen and blood. The ghost heart then matures
inside the bioreactor and eventually starts to beat and pump blood.
Now that we know more about the origin of the ghost heart, let’s explore the uses of
the ghost heart.
a. As stated earlier, 50,000 people die each year waiting for a heart transplant. The
b. Rejection and infection are two of the leading causes of death in the first year of
life after heart transplantation surgery according to the National Heart, Lung, and
Blood Institute website (also known as the NIH), on the webpage “Risk of Heart
Transplant”. The Mayo Clinic website, on the heart transplant webpage, states
25 percent of heart transplant recipients will show some signs of rejection within
the first year of receiving the heart.
c. In order to reduce the risk of rejection a patient must be placed on
immunosuppressant drug therapy. The NIH further states the risk factors and side
effects from immunosuppressant drug therapy. According to the NIH, cancer,
kidney damage, and infections can result from immunosuppressant drug therapy.
According to the article on the Cleveland.com website, previously cited, the use
of the ghost heart could eliminate the need for anti-rejection medicines and their
negative side effects.
d. The same source states, researchers believe the ghost heart will not be rejected
because the heart will be custom made from the recipient’s stem cells.
e. In other words, if the patient’s own cells are being used to create the new heart,
then the recipient’s body will not attack these cells.
III.
Finally, after discussing the origin and uses of the ghost heart, let’s explore the future
of the ghost heart.
a. The success and progression of the ghost heart is detailed in an article on the
Popular Science Magazine website written by Elizabeth Svoboda, titled “Ghost
Heart”.
b. This article further states that a beating human heart, a ghost heart, has been
successfully created by Dr. Doris Taylor; for it to be a reliable form of a donor
heart, it must do more than just beat. It needs to contain vessels and other tissues.
c. Dr. Taylor is currently working on these next steps. She has created a way to
occupy the ghost heart with bloods vessels, according to the Popular Science
Magazine article previously cited.
d. The same source states that Dr. Taylor predicts a transplantable heart will become
available within the next ten years.
Conclusion
I.
II.
III.
Signal Conclusion / Review Points: In conclusion, we have explored the origin of a
ghost heart, its uses, and the future of the ghost heart.
The creation of a functioning ghost heart will provide many more hearts available for
transplant. Additionally, it will also eliminate the need for drug therapy after
receiving a donor heart.
Clincher: Increasing the amount of available transplantable hearts will possibly
eliminate some of the 50,000 deaths that occur each year while awaiting a heart
transplant.
Works Cited
"About Regenerative Medicine Research at the Texas Heart Institute." About Regenerative Medicine
Research at the Texas Heart Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
"'Ghost Heart,' a Framework for Growing New Human Hearts, Could Be Answer for Thousands Waiting
for New Heart." Cleveland.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
"Ghost Heart." Popular Science. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
"Heart Transplant." Risks. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
"What Are the Risks of a Heart Transplant?" - NHLBI, NIH. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.