This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报告。
A pacemaker is a small device that doctors place in people with an abnormal heartbeat. If a heart beats too slowly, the pacemaker will use electrical signals to help set a normal rate. Some devices include a defibrillator, which gives a shock if the heart beats too fast.
心脏起搏器是一个小装置，医生将它植入心跳异常的病人体内。如果心跳过慢，心脏起搏器将使用电子信号帮助心跳恢复正常频率。有些起搏器还包含一个除颤器，如果心跳过快，它将产生一个震动（帮助心跳恢复正常）。
Pacemakers may be permanent or temporary. But one thing is sure. Developing countries need more of them as more people get heart disease.
心脏起搏器分为永久性和暂时性的。但有一点是肯定的，由于越来越多人患心脏病，发展中国家需要更多的起搏器。
A big problem, however, is the cost. Buying and implanting a pacemaker costs from five thousand to fifteen thousand dollars.
然而费用是个相当大的问题，购买和植入一个心脏起搏器将花费5000到15000美元。
But doctors at the University of Michigan think they know a way to lower that cost. The idea is to reuse pacemakers.
但密歇根大学的医生们认为他们知道一种办法来降低成本，那就是重复使用心脏起搏器。
Heart doctor Timir Baman estimates that more than one million people worldwide need pacemakers each year. He says reusing a pacemaker is an ethical way to provide health care to those who have no other way to get one.
心脏病医生季米尔·贝曼估计，全球每年有超过1百万人需要起搏器。他说，重复使用心脏起搏器，是一种为那些无力获取心脏起搏器的人提供治疗的道义方式。
TIMIR BAMAN: "A country such as Bangladesh or India, they average less than eight new implants per million. In the United States, we average seven hundred fifty-two new implants per million."
季米尔·贝曼：“像孟加拉国或印度，平均每百万人植入新的起搏器数量不到8个。而在美国，平均每百万人植入的数量是752个。”
He got the idea a few years ago. One of his patients asked if someone might be given her pacemaker for reuse after she died.
他几年前得到这种想法。他的一个病人问，当自己去世后，是否会将她的起搏器给其他人使用。
But are used pacemakers safe? Doctor Baman studied medical reports about the safety of pacemakers that were being reused in small studies.
但是，使用过的起搏器安全吗？贝曼博士研究了关于一些小型研究中重复使用心脏起搏器安全性的医学报告。
TIMIR BAMAN: "We found that there's no real difference in device infection or device malfunction when you compare it to new pacemaker implantation."
季米尔贝曼：“我们发现，与植入全新的心脏起搏器相比，（使用过的起搏器）在设备感染与故障方面并没有真正的差别。
Funeral directors normally remove pacemakers when preparing bodies for cremation. Pacemakers can explode if they are burned. So Doctor Baman asked funeral directors in Michigan to send the pacemakers to him.
丧葬负责人通常会在准备火化时将心脏起搏器从遗体移除，因为起搏器在燃烧时可能会爆炸。因此，贝曼博士请求密西根州的丧葬负责人把这些拆下来的心脏起搏器寄给他。
He and other researchers at the University of Michigan Medical Center tested the used pacemakers. They cleaned and disinfected the ones in good working order. Then they sent them to doctors in the Philippines, Vietnam and Ghana.
他和密歇根大学医学中心的其他研究人员测试了使用过的心脏起搏器。他们将其中正常工作的心脏起搏器清理并消毒，然后寄给了菲律宾、越南和加纳的医生们。
The doctors successfully implanted the used pacemakers in twelve patients. The findings were recently presented at a conference in Washington of the American Heart Association.
医生们为12位患者成功地植入了使用过的心脏起搏器。这项研究结果最近在美国心脏协会华盛顿会议上发表。
Now, Timir Baman has asked the United States Food and Drug Administration for approval to do a larger test. He says -- speaking by Skype from his office in Ann Arbor, Michigan -- that he is hopeful the program will work.
现在，季米尔·贝曼已申请美国食品和药物管理局批准一个更大的测试。他在密歇根州安阿伯的办公室通过Skype表示，他对该方案的可行性充满希望。
TIMIR BAMAN: "If we show that this is safe, other academic centers in the United States as well as in Europe can then form their own pacemaker reutilization programs and really help out countries in Africa, really help out countries in Asia, who really have no other access to these type of devices."
季米尔贝曼：“如果我们能证明这是安全的，其他美国和欧洲的医学中心就能够形成他们自己的心脏起搏器回收方案，这将真正的拯救亚、非国家那些确实无法获取这种类型设备的人们。”