Neelix's Lungs

[WEAREBORG4102 0]

Remember in the Episode "phage", neelix's lungs were removed? Well recall in Star Trek IV that McCoy gave that woman a pill to regrow a new kidney. If that medical technology was a century before the EMH's time, howcome he didn't have a pill to replace lungs?

[trekzone 0]

because that would then be a very boring episode.

 

or the technology is so sopisticated that it is only available at a Starbase..

[vold 0]

There's a better reason to that.

 

1. Because lungs are a more complicated organs.

2. Neelix is a Talaxian, they not squat about their phisiology to grow proper lungs.

 

If i'm not mistaken,

The Doc did mentioned that he could not just replace Neelix's lungs without proper info about their biology.

Edited May 1, 2004 by vold

[Jeanway 0]

Remember in the Episode "phage", neelix's lungs were removed? Well recall in Star Trek IV that McCoy gave that woman a pill to regrow a new kidney. If that medical technology was a century before the EMH's time, howcome he didn't have a pill to replace lungs?

 

 

 

 

That's a really good question Wearborg, yea, how come??

[WEAREBORG4102 0]

because that would then be a very boring episode.

 

or the technology is so sopisticated that it is only available at a Starbase..

but remember McCoy was carrying it around in a medical kit...

They were in a full sickbay!!!!

[vold 0]

Hello, is anyone considering my opinion?

 

 

lol

Edited May 2, 2004 by vold

[Mike 5]

Hello, is anyone considering my opinion?

 

I do tend to agree with you vold...I feel that lungs are more complicated organs..And besides it would be a very boring episode like TZ said..Doctor gave me a pill and I have a new Lung ?? I'm glad they went the way they did with the episode..

[trekzone 0]

Talaxian....maybe its only a HUMAN pill?

[Jeanway 0]

Remember in the Episode "phage", neelix's lungs were removed? Well recall in Star Trek IV that McCoy gave that woman a pill to regrow a new kidney. If that medical technology was a century before the EMH's time, howcome he didn't have a pill to replace lungs?

 

 

 

 

That's a really good question Wearborg, yea, how come??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excuse me but he didn't say it would regrow a new kidney. All he said was "take this and call him in the morning" or something like that. Maybe it wasn't meant to grow a new kidney, maybe it was to repair the existing kidney(s),ever think of that? And weren't Nelixs's lungs removed? He needed a transplant. Kes gave him one of hers, didn't she? So this very well could be two different issues entirely and render this a moot arguement.

[ARMS 0]

I'd think kidneys are more complicated than lungs, the lungs oxigenate the whole bloodstream and allow CO2 to pass out, whereas the kidneys are much smaller and must filter the entire bloodstream.

[gdog243 0]

A Talaxian's physiology is much different than a Humans. The Doctor didn't have Neelix's file, and there was no way the pills would work. Neelix needed his own lungs back. That, and it would have been a boring episode. :)

[blitzkrieg1110 0]

hey jeanway, the reason why we know she grew a new lung was because thats what the doctors were saying when kirk and mccoy were escaping. they called it a miracle. and i think its a miracle for subtitles cause i never wouldve caught that without them lol!

[vold 0]

hey jeanway, the reason why we know she grew a new lung was because thats what the doctors were saying when kirk and mccoy were escaping.  they called it a miracle.  and i think its a miracle for subtitles cause i never wouldve caught that without them lol!

lung?

 

i thought it was a kidney problem, in TOS?

[Jeanway 0]

I'd think kidneys are more complicated than lungs, the lungs oxigenate the whole bloodstream and allow CO2 to pass out, whereas the kidneys are much smaller and must filter the entire bloodstream.

 

 

i'm sorry, AS complicated as each other, but in different ways. What the kidneys do is just a miraculous as what the lungs do but in different ways. Just think about it, would you rather not be able to pee or breath? Sure death is sooner when you can't breath, but not being able to filter the blood is a slow, agonizing death. But both are death. Both organs are necessary and important. You cut open a kidney and cut open a lung, both a sort of filtering system, both deal with the bloodstream. The lungs transfer oxygen to the blood, the kidneys filter impurities from the blood. Everything has to do with the blood. How can you say one is more complicated than the other?

[ARMS 0]

I'd think kidneys are more complicated than lungs, the lungs oxigenate the whole bloodstream and allow CO2 to pass out, whereas the kidneys are much smaller and must filter the entire bloodstream.

 

 

i'm sorry, AS complicated as each other, but in different ways. What the kidneys do is just a miraculous as what the lungs do but in different ways. Just think about it, would you rather not be able to pee or breath? Sure death is sooner when you can't breath, but not being able to filter the blood is a slow, agonizing death. But both are death. Both organs are necessary and important. You cut open a kidney and cut open a lung, both a sort of filtering system, both deal with the bloodstream. The lungs transfer oxygen to the blood, the kidneys filter impurities from the blood. Everything has to do with the blood. How can you say one is more complicated than the other?

Well they're smaller! And do as much work.

[Jeanway 0]

Size is relative, the lungs are larger but they are filled with air, they have to be able to expand. The kidneys stay the same size all the time.

Edited May 6, 2004 by Jeanway

[nik 0]

Perhaps I'm completely wrong here, but if I remember correctly, the woman in STIV - who presumably knew nothing about medicine - said that she was in the hospital for kidney dialysis, meaning that she required aritificial mean to filter wastes from her blood. McCoy gave her something to swallow, which - according to the doctors - resulted in a regenerative process, and - according to the woman - gave her a new kidney. Neither of these statements say that the woman grew a kidney ex nihilo. I'm guessing that she probably had a set of kidneys that were at one point in her life fully functional, and the wear-and-tear of life caused them to weaken.

 

It's interesting to note that both the lungs and the kidneys operate on very similar principles at the basic level. Both rely on fluid pressure gradients (differences) to transfer chemicals from accross an interface. In the case of the lungs tiny vessels carry oxygen-poor blood to the polmonary alveoli to where oxygen goes from a relatively oxygen-rich environment to a relatively oxygen-poor environment. In the case of the kidneys, ionic and chemical exchange takes place in many tiny loops called nephrons (check out an anatomy book), which bare more than a passing resemlance to distillation columns used in chemistry labs. The "osmotic gradient" accross these loops allows poisons to pass. Fascinating organs, both!

 

So why did Neelix need an organ transplant, when a pill might have saved him? Geeze, I don't know. Little was known about his species, his genetics, or his lungs. Did his body extract oxygen, or something else. We're his lungs based on the exchange of gas accross a membrane, or maybe they fluid filled vessels like in a fish tank? The point is that the doctor probably had no idea what he was getting into when he put Neelix under the knife. Unlike human anatomy and physiology, Neelix's was

corpus incognita.

 

Just a thought.

[Jeanway 0]

I'd think kidneys are more complicated than lungs, the lungs oxigenate the whole bloodstream and allow CO2 to pass out, whereas the kidneys are much smaller and must filter the entire bloodstream.

 

 

 

 

 

Excuse me, again, but don't 'whole'and 'entire' mean the same thing? :P

 

Whole bloodstream, entire bloodstream, sounds the same to me.

[Jeanway 0]

nik, have you ever heard of breathing in liquid oxygen?

[nik 0]

nik, have you ever heard of breathing in liquid oxygen?

You know, I have, but only in speculation. I remember talking to an engineer once loosely associated with a project to develop a liquid rebreather in which oxygen is dissolved in a liquid and delivered to the lungs - sort of like what they did in "The Abyss." I don't know if any development exists or if the device is in use. The idea is that it reduces the gas buildup in the blood at higher pressures, eliminating or

reducing the need for decompression. I really don't know if such a thing is in use. Maybe the Navy uses this stuff....

[Jeanway 0]

Oh yes, that's where I first saw this, but there was a Japanese company that was experimenting with it a few years ago. Sound familiar?

[nik 0]

Now that you mention it, I think it was in Japan that I heard of such a thing.... I'll have to think hard about this to bring it to the forefront of my memory.....

[ragingtarg 0]

I think the whole 'different species' thing made the Doctor wary about what kind of medication he was giving to Neelix.

[please delete 0]

it may be hard to grow back lungs or something because it's a delicate tissue... and him being a different speices, they may not have tested it on other speices... but they may have used the medical technology to exspand it to adapt to other species.

[Matt 0]

Neelix's physiology is completely different to humans, the pills were probably only made to interact with human physiology.