Australia’s first artificial heart implant is being crowned a success because the recipient became the first person to be discharged from the hospital with the device. Last November, doctors implanted a titanium mechanical blood pump into a man suffering from heart failure. The titanium device is called the BiVACOR.
BiVACOR is a temporary implant used while the patient waits for a donated heart. However, the device is designed to be a permanent replacement. Doctors hope it could eventually eliminate the need for human heart donors.
Titanium Heart
Cardiothoracic and transplant surgeon Paul Jansz performed the operation at St. Vincent’s Hospital. He said that the device and operation gave him “goosebumps.”
“There were definitely nerves, especially when Daniel [Timms, who invented BiVACOR] flicked the switch and turned it [the artificial heart] on,” Dr Jansz said. He describes the invention as the “Holy Grail” because it “technically” cannot be rejected or fail.
Dr. Timms dedicated his whole life to the invention, according to a report from ABC (Australian Broadcast Corporation). Timms’s father died of heart failure and was someone he spent countless hours with while developing the titanium heart. This “intensified” the doctor’s passion to complete the artificial heart.
Waiting For a Match
The patient, a man in his 40s from New South Wales, volunteered to have the device implanted in him while waiting for a heart donor. He lived with the titanium heart for over 100 days before finally getting a human heart match. His transplant surgery was a success, and he is recovering well, the doctors said.
Before receiving the artificial heart, doctors say he was extremely unwell and wasn’t expected to survive long enough to get a human match.
“A quarter of the people waiting for a transplant [used to] die — that’s changed now with devices like this,” Dr. Jansz said.
Dr. Timms expects his device to be implanted in more people in two to three years. He says they are ramping up manufacturing so that the devices are ready and waiting on the shelf. The device is small but powerful. According to the new report, it’s small enough to fit inside a young child and weighs about 650 grams. However, they say the patient can’t even tell it’s there.
Its battery lasts about four hours until it alerts the patient a new one is needed. Timms hopes that one day a patient won’t have to carry around a battery and instead they could wear a wireless charger over their chest.
