Australian man survives 100 days with artificial heart in world-first success

An Australian man with heart failure has become the first person in the world to leave a hospital with a total artificial heart implant.

On Wednesday (12 March), the Australian researchers and doctors behind the procedure announced that the implant had been an "unmitigated clinical success" after the patient lived with the device for over 100 days before receiving a donor heart transplant in early March, reports The Guardian. 

The BiVACOR total artificial heart, created by Queensland-born Dr. Daniel Timms, is the world's first implantable rotary blood pump designed to fully replace a human heart. Using magnetic levitation technology, it mimics the natural blood flow of a healthy heart. 

Still in the early stages of clinical trials, the device is intended for patients with end-stage biventricular heart failure—a condition often caused by heart attacks, coronary artery disease, or other illnesses like diabetes—that severely weakens the heart's ability to pump blood effectively. 

According to the Australian government, which contributed $50 million to develop and commercialize the BiVACOR device through the Artificial Heart Frontiers Program, more than 23 million people worldwide suffer from heart failure each year, but only 6,000 receive a donor heart. 

The implant is designed to sustain patients until a donor heart is available, but BiVACOR's long-term goal is to enable recipients to live indefinitely with the device without needing a transplant. 

The patient, a man in his 40s from New South Wales experiencing severe heart failure, volunteered to be the first recipient of the total artificial heart in Australia and the sixth worldwide. 

The first five implants were performed in the U.S. last year, with all recipients receiving donor hearts before hospital discharge. The longest period between implantation and transplant in those cases was 27 days. 

The Australian patient underwent surgery on November 22 at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, in a six-hour procedure led by cardiothoracic and transplant surgeon Paul Jansz. He was discharged in February and later received a donor heart in March. 

Jansz described the procedure as a historic and pioneering milestone for Australian medicine. 

"We've been working toward this for years and are incredibly proud to be the first team in Australia to complete this procedure," he said. 

Professor Chris Hayward, a cardiologist at St Vincent's who monitored the patient after his time in intensive care, said the BiVACOR heart could revolutionize heart failure treatment worldwide. 

"The BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart changes the game for heart transplants, both in Australia and internationally," Hayward said. "Within the next decade, we'll see artificial hearts becoming a viable option for patients who can't wait for a donor or for whom a donor heart simply isn't available." 

Professor David Colquhoun from the University of Queensland, a board member of the Heart Foundation who was not involved in the trial, called the success a major technological step forward for artificial hearts as a bridge to transplant. 

However, Colquhoun noted that the artificial heart's functioning lifespan—just over 100 days—remains far shorter than that of a donor heart, which can last over 10 years (more than 3,000 days). 

For this reason, he said, there is still "a long way to go" before artificial hearts can be considered a full replacement for heart transplants. 

Colquhoun also pointed out that heart failure rates have declined over time due to advances in medication. He noted that in 1967-68, heart disease caused 47,000 deaths in Australia's population of 11 million, whereas in 2022, there were 45,000 deaths in a population of 26 million. 

This procedure marks the first in a series of planned operations in Australia under the Monash University-led Artificial Heart Frontiers Program, which is developing three key devices to treat the most common types of heart failure.