Australian man survives 100 days with artificial heart before transplant

Patient received the device at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney in a six-hour surgery on 22 November.

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An Australian man with severe heart failure has become the first person to survive more than 100 days with a total artificial heart implant before receiving a donor transplant, doctors announced on Wednesday.

The BiVACOR total artificial heart, designed by Queensland-born Dr Daniel Timms, is the world’s first rotary blood pump that fully replaces the human heart. The implant, still in early clinical trials, uses magnetic levitation to replicate natural blood flow and is intended as a bridge for patients awaiting transplants.

The patient, a man in his 40s from New South Wales, received the device at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney in a six-hour surgery on 22 November. He was discharged with the implant in February and later received a donor heart in early March.

Surgeon Paul Jansz, who led the procedure, called it a historic moment for Australian medicine. "We’ve worked towards this for years, and we’re enormously proud to be the first team in Australia to carry out this procedure," he said.

Previous BiVACOR implants have been performed in the United States, but none of those patients lived beyond 27 days before receiving a donor heart.

Professor Chris Hayward, a cardiologist at St Vincent’s, said the success of the Australian case could reshape global heart failure treatment. "Within the next decade, artificial hearts could become the alternative for those who cannot wait for a donor heart," he said.

While experts hailed the achievement, cardiologist Professor David Colquhoun cautioned that artificial hearts still have a long way to go before replacing transplants, as donor hearts can last more than a decade.

The procedure is part of Australia’s Artificial Heart Frontiers Program, led by Monash University, which aims to develop new devices for advanced heart failure treatment.