An Australian man in his 40s with severe heart failure just made medical history by being the first person to live for over 100 days with an artificial titanium heart. The artificial heart was surgically implanted to act as a stopgap measure as he awaited a heart transplant.
The man who declined to be identified received his implant at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney this past November. He remained in the hospital until February when he became the first person on earth to leave the hospital with the titanium artificial heart implanted. The heart kept him chugging along until a donor’s heart became available in early March.
The artificial heart was developed by a company called BiVACOR. The company’s Total Artificial Heart, or TAH, is less complicated than previous artificial hearts, as it only has a single moving part: a spinning rotor held in place by magnets.
The device takes oxygenated blood in and pumps it out to the body, as a heart should. This 3D animated rendering of how it works leaves no doubt that this thing looks like a car engine designed for a human’s chest.
No valves or bearings means fewer parts will wear out over time as the device works to replace both heart ventricles. Professor Chris Hayward of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Australia is overseeing the patient’s recovery and has been deeply involved in the TAH’s clinical trials.
Speaking with CNN, he said “within the next decade we will see the artificial heart becoming the alternative for patients who are unable to wait for a donor heart or when a donor heart is simply not available.”
As for when the TAH will be available to patients in the United States, well, good news — it’s already here.
In July 2024, a 58-year-old man in Texas with end-stage heart failure received a TAH. He only needed it for eight days before a donor heart became available. The device has been tested by the FDA and so far, a total of five patients have been implanted with the device in the United States.
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