Australian man in artificial heart world first
The patient lived with an artificial device for more than 100 days before receiving a transplant earlier this month.
An Australian man has become the first person in the world to leave hospital with an artificial implanted heart.
The Australian researchers and doctors behind the surgery on Wednesday said the implant had been an “unmitigated clinical success” after the patient in his 40s lived with the device for more than 100 days before receiving a donor transplant earlier this month.
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St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney cardiologist Professor Chris Hayward said the device would transform heart failure treatment worldwide.
“The BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart ushers in a whole new ball game for heart transplants, both in Australia and internationally,” Hayward 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.”
The world’s first BiVACOR implant was on July 9 last year at the Texas Medical Centre.
Since that operation, there have been four more implants in the US. The successful Australian implant is the first outside America and – at 105 days – the longest period in the world for a patient between obtaining their implant and receiving a donor transplant.
With the device implanted, the man left hospital in an Uber in February.
Timms said the man could not feel the device inside his chest, and was able to walk down the street and go shopping in the month before he received his donated heart.
“Being able to bring Australia along this journey and be part of the first clinical trials is immensely important to me and something that I set out to do from the very beginning,” Timms said.
“It is incredibly rewarding to see our device deliver extended support to the first Australian patient,” he added.
The implant is the first in a series of procedures planned in Australia as part of the Monash University-led Artificial Heart Frontiers Program.
