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Australia's first durable, durable cardiac implant was welcomed for success after the recipient became the world's first person to be released from hospital with a high-tech device.
During a six-hour operation in Sydney last November, doctors implanted a Vivacoll total artificial heart, a mechanical blood pump made of titanium, into a man experiencing severe heart failure.
Men received implants as stop gaps until the donated hearts became available, but Bivacor is designed to be a permanent replacement for a failed heart one day.
Doctors hope that they can ultimately completely deny the need for human heart donors.
Artificial hearts use magnetic technology to “float” rather than pumping the blood around the body. (Supply: Bivacor))
Famous cardiothoracic and transplant surgeon Paul Jants said he performed surgery at St. Vincent's Hospital and gave him “goosebumps.”
“I definitely had nerves, especially when it came to Daniel. [Timms, who invented BiVACOR] I flicked the switch and turned it [the artificial heart] So Dr. Jantz said.
He described this invention as the “Holy Grail.” Technically, it is not possible for your body to fail or be rejected.
How Bannings' Trip led to the invention of Titanium Heart
Implants pump blood around the body using motors with special mechanisms to avoid mechanical wear between parts. Use a magnet to hang the rotor of the motor. This means that the parts will not rub or wear over time.
The device was designed by Queensland-born inventor Daniel Timmes.
Dr. Tims said his interest in the idea first sparked in his childhood as he spent countless hours with his breeder's father and was tinkering with the water pump.
Daniel Timmes' artificial hearts are different from others that generally don't last for more than a few years. (Image: Australia of the Year Awards))
He said that his invention includes many trips to Banning, which he visited with his father every weekend.
“We had a goal between us. Can we get the biggest receipt in Bannings?” he said. “We were trying to buy as much as we could to get this going.”
Dr. Tims' father later died of heart failure, only strengthening his passion for perfecting an artificial heart.
He has always been determined to make sure Australians benefit from it early on.
“There are a lot of inventions in Australia and sometimes they feel like they're lost overseas,” he said.
Australian Heart Invention is being tried in the US
Dr. Tims said he is grateful to the patient, a man in his 40s in New South Wales, who volunteered to receive the implant while waiting for the implant.
The man lived with an artificial heart for more than 100 days before a human heart match was found last week. His transplant surgery was also successful, and he is recovering well.
The patient was seriously ill before receiving Vivacor's heart.
He was even struggling to walk to the toilet, so he wasn't expected to survive long enough to get the donor's heart.
“One quarter of people waiting for a transplant [used to] Die – This is changing with devices like this now.”
Dr. Jants said.
Daniel Timmes was urged to create a device after his father died of heart failure. (Supply: Bivacor))
Dr. Tims said he expects his artificial heart to be implanted in more and more people in two or three years, not new.
“We need to make more devices. That's the only limitation right now… We're strengthening our manufacturing and sitting on the shelf where they're ready and waiting.”
Four more devices will be embedded this year through the Artificial Heart Frontier Program led by Monash University.
Vivacoll was first implanted in a patient at the Texas Heart Institute in July 2024, but the patient was not discharged from the hospital. Since then, four other patients in the US have received them before matching their donors, but have not been discharged from the hospital with implants.
Small but powerful
The device is small enough to fit 12 years old and weighs around 650 grams, but doctors say patients cannot feel it in it.
It is equipped with an external rechargeable battery that connects to the heart via a wire in the patient's chest.
Load
The battery lasts for 4 hours, then alerting the patient that a new battery is needed. In the future, patients will not need to carry the battery around and will even be able to place a wireless charger on their chest, just like how to charge their phones wirelessly.
Dr. Jantz said the historic implant was appropriately performed in the same location where Australia's first heart transplant was performed in 1968.
Doctors at Alfred Hospital in Melbourne are trained and hope to have their first Vivacoll implants around mid-2025.
Heart failure occurs when the heart kills around 5,000 Australians each year and reduces the effectiveness of the heart in pumping blood around the body. It can occur suddenly, but develops slowly as the heart weakens.
Chris Hayward, a cardiologist in Sydney at St. Vincent's Hospital, said Vivacall's artificial heart would be an alternative to patients who cannot wait for the donor's heart, or when the donor's heart is simply unavailable.
Australia desperately needs more organ donors as the total number of transplant recipients fell by 5% and heart transplants fell by 19% last year.
