Brisbane, Australia – In a medical milestone, an Australian man has lived for 100 days with an artificial titanium heart, marking the longest period anyone has survived with the technology while awaiting a transplant.
The patient, a man in his 40s who chose to remain anonymous, underwent the life-saving procedure at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney last November after suffering from severe heart failure. He became the first person in the world to be discharged from the hospital with the device, which sustained him until a donor heart became available earlier this month.
In a joint statement released on Wednesday, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Monash University, and BiVACOR—the US-Australian company behind the artificial heart—confirmed that the patient is “recovering well” following his successful transplant.
The trial’s success is being hailed as a major breakthrough in cardiac medicine, with experts seeing the device as a potential long-term solution for patients with end-stage heart failure. Though the artificial heart is still undergoing trials and has not yet been approved for general use, its ability to sustain a patient for such an extended period is a promising sign for future applications.
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