Man leaves hospital with world’s first titanium heart
It looks like something out of a comic, but it is actually a titanium heart that works. According to its creators and St. Vincent’s Hospital representatives in Sydney, Australia, the groundbreaking invention recently marked a major milestone: a man survived for over 100 days with his BiVACOR implant. He was even temporarily discharged from the medical facility while it still pumping blood inside him. The St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, Australia representatives and its creators claim that the breakthrough invention has recently reached a milestone. A man was able to survive for more than 100 days while wearing his BiVACOR implants, and he was temporarily discharged with the device still pumping inside him. Timms began by simulating a circulatory system with hardware store valves and pipes. Over the next 25-years, Timms developed BiVACOR. The result is a system that works without valves, and relies only on one moving part. The magnetically levitating motor spins between the two chambers without ever coming into contact the titanium frame, eliminating the possibility of corrosion or malfunction. The device is powered by a battery externally located on the abdomen. The device is small enough to be worn by both women and men, as well as 12-year-old children. BiVOCAR has also been shown to support adults during strenuous activity. A man in his forties with severe heart failure could barely walk before he lost his breath. The patient recovered enough strength to leave the hospital in the weeks after the six-hour surgery. He returned to receive his human transplant in early March, and is now recovering, according to a March 12 announcement from St. Vincent’s Hospital.
“Heart failure kills almost 5,000 Australians every year. We’ve worked towards this moment for years and we’re enormously proud to have been the first team in Australia to carry out this procedure,” Paul Jansz, a heart surgeon involved in the procedure, said in a separate statement.
BiVACOR isn’t commercially available yet, but four more devices are being readied for use in Australia by the end of 2025. In the future, these titanium hearts may not just serve as temporary tools, but instead offer longterm and perhaps even permanent replacements.
Andrew Paul, Popular Science’s tech writer, is a staff writer.
