By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-12 07:03:20 | Updated at 2025-03-12 12:47:01
5 hours ago
An Australian man in his 40s has become the first patient in the world to be discharged from hospital fitted with a completely artificial heart.
The man, who suffered from severe heart failure, lived with the BiVacor Total Artificial Heart, a blood pump made of titanium, for more than 100 days before receiving a heart transplant on Thursday last week.
In a six-hour operation on November 22, he was fitted with the artificial heart at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital as a bridging measure while he waited for a donor heart to become available – the first time such an operation was performed in Australia.
By early February, he could be discharged while fitted with the device. He returned early this month to receive a donor heart – 105 days since obtaining the implant.
“The patient holds the record for the longest time a BiVacor patient has gone from implant to transplant – a major step toward the future of artificial heart technology,” St Vincent’s said in a statement.
“With this innovation, the long-term goal is for patients to live with the device indefinitely without needing a transplant.”
