Brisbane, Australia
CNN
–
The Australian man lived in a heart made of artificial titanium for 100 days, but he was waiting for a donor implant.
The patient is a man in his 40s who refused to be identified and received an implant during surgery at St. Vincent's Hospital Sydney last November.
In February, he became the world's first person, leaving the hospital with his device and stayed alive until a heart donor became available earlier this month.
The man suffering from severe heart failure was “well recovering” according to a statement issued Wednesday by St. Vincent Hospital, Monash University and Vivacall, the US-Australian company behind the device.
The device's ability to keep him for a long time is celebrated as a sign that an artificial heart could offer long-term options for people suffering from heart failure. This device is still being tried and has not been approved for general use yet.
Bivacor founder Daniel Timms, an Australian bioengineer, invented the device after his father's death due to heart disease, said “it's refreshing to see decades of work come to fruition.”
“The entire Vivacall team is deeply grateful to the patient and his family for putting their trust in our entire artificial heart,” he said in a statement. “Their courage will pave the way for countless patients to receive this life-saving technique.”
The Bivacor Total Artificial Heart (TAH) has a single moving part, a floating rotor held in place by a magnet. As the name suggests, it is made of titanium and does not have easy-to-wear valves or mechanical bearings.
It pumps blood into the body and lungs, replacing both the ventricles of the heart that has failed.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, killing around 18 million people each year. According to the World Health Organization.
Reduce the risk of heart disease
The long-term ambition is to use the device to save more people who suffer from waiting lists for the right donors. Approximately 3,500 people received a heart transplant in 2024, according to the U.S. Health Service. Approximately 4,400 people joined the waiting list in the same year.
Professor Chris Hayward of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute said Bivacor's heart is guiding you through a “a whole new ball game for heart transplants.”
“In the next 10 years, we will ensure that artificial hearts will be an alternative to patients who cannot wait for their donor hearts or when the donor hearts are simply unavailable,” said Hayward, who oversees the recovery of patients in Australia and was involved in preparing for clinical trials.
The device has already been tested in an early Food and Drug Administration feasibility study in the US, and found that five patients implanted the device.
The first was last July, when a 58-year-old man suffered from terminal heart failure during surgery at Texas Medical Center received an implant. He lived for eight days until the donor was available.
Four other patients continued in the study to examine the safety and performance of the device while awaiting donor implantation. We hope that the trial will expand to 15 patients.
The Australian implants were the first in a series planned by Monash University's Artificial Heart Frontier Program. This is the Australian Dollar ($31 million) program that develops and commercializes three devices to treat heart failure.
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