One Australian man has achieved a staggering record by being the longest surviving human ever with a mechanical heart, as the titanium device situated in his chest kept him alive for 100 days.
Having a heart of stone or a heart of gold might be age-old expressions, but one man has taken it a step further by literally having a heart made from metal in the wait for a transplant.
Having experienced heart failure, the Sydney-based man's options were looking thin with a lengthy wait for a transplant, yet the chance to have a temporary titanium device implanted into their body offered a glimmer of hope, as reported by Supercar Blondie.
The transplant took place in St. Vincent's Hospital in November last year, and he successfully left the hospital in February - becoming the first person in the world to go about their life with a mechanical heart.
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Thankfully a 'real' heart became available in early March, but this marked a significant achievement in the field as he managed to survive for over 100 days with the titanium device inside of him.
The device in question was designed and built by a company called BiVACOR, which was founded by Daniel Timms who sadly lost his own father to heart disease, prompting him to seek ways to revolutionize cardiovascular care.
Artificial hearts are implemented in what they call bridge-to-transplant solutions, which are essentially 'waiting rooms' for patients with end-stage heart disease as they prepare for a suitable transplant option.
This let's them continue living their life for a short period without the diseased heart inside their body, giving them a necessary and valuable buffer that might otherwise prove fatal without the artificial solution.
Dr. Joseph Rogers, a leading investigator on research involving BiVACOR's artificial hearts, outlined in a statement following the first successes of the artificial heart: "The Texas Heart Institute is enthused about the groundbreaking first implantation of BiVACOR's TAH. With heart failure remaining a leading cause or mortality globally, the BiVACOR TAH offers a beacon of hope for countless patients awaiting a heart transplant."
With regards to how it actually works, the TAH or 'Total Artificial Heart' is a biventricular rotary blood pump with a single moving part, utilizing a magnetically levitated rotor to bump blood and replace the two ventricles of the heart itself.
This essentially mimics the basic functions of the natural wonder that is your heart all within a single moving action, allowing the blood to continue circulating around the body and keep you alive.