A Man Lived 105 Days With a Titanium Heart
I thought we’d be living on Mars before we figured out how to build an actual, working, totally mechanical heart. I mean a titanium heart inside a human, keeping them alive for months? Yeah, that seems far-fetched as hell.
But apparently, that just happened.
A man in Australia just became the first person in the world to be sent home from the hospital while living with a completely artificial heart made of titanium. No pulse, no heartbeat, just a spinning disc pumping his blood for 105 days straight. So weird.
If that doesn’t blow your mind a little, I don’t know what will, you’re hard to impress I guess.
This story is why I’m half convinced we’re already living in the future without realizing it.
How does a titanium heart even work?
Okay, here’s the deal, unlike traditional artificial hearts that try to mimic the beat-beat-beat of a real heart, this new device (the BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart) doesn’t beat at all. Very vampire-style.
Instead of beating, it uses a single spinning disc, floating in a magnetic field, to push blood around your body. That’s right: a spinning disc. It sounds like something out of Iron Man’s chest plate, but it’s even more bizarre.
Because it doesn’t have valves or lots of moving parts rubbing together, it avoids a lot of the problems older artificial hearts ran into. Less friction means less chance of clots, less wear and tear, and fewer mechanical failures, which is all very good and a big win for anyone in need of a new heart.
It’s kinda genius. Like nature said “good luck copying this” and a bunch of engineers somewhere in Australia replied “hold my beer.”
This guy actually went home with it.
Here’s the most impressive part about this whole story, this wasn’t some guy stuck in an ICU hooked up to wires 24/7. Nope, doctors in Sydney implanted the artificial heart during a six-hour surgery. After weeks of recovery, the man was discharged from the hospital, living at home, walking around, going about daily life with no biological heart inside him.
He lived like that for 105 days, waiting for a transplant. And then, when a donor heart finally became available, they swapped the titanium heart out for a human one.
If you’d told me last year that was even possible? I would’ve laughed. But here we are, and I’m wondering if he would’ve been better off with the titanium heart over the human donor heart in the long-term.
By the way, if you’re fascinated by hospitals quietly pulling off these mind-blowing upgrades, you’ll probably love this article I wrote about how hospitals are swapping out steel doorknobs for copper to fight bacteria. Same “wait, why aren’t we all talking about this?” energy, but a little less extreme.
Why this is such a big deal
Yeah, I feel like this might be obvious, but up until now, artificial hearts were kind of a very last resort. They were big, clunky, temporary devices meant to keep you alive inside a hospital bed until a transplant came through.
But this is a heart that’s small enough, efficient enough, and even reliable enough to let someone leave the hospital and live a relatively normal life while waiting for their new heart to come in.
That’s a massive game-changer. Not everyone on a transplant list gets a donor organ in time, and now, instead of being trapped in a hospital, patients could be home living, not just barely surviving. Which would do wonders for their mood and mindset.
It’s hope, freedom, and dignity rolled into a spinning disc of titanium.
How do you even monitor someone with no heartbeat?
Here’s the trippy part that makes me keep going back to vampires. Because this heart doesn’t beat, it doesn’t create a pulse. There’s no heartbeat, no pulse, nada, niente, nothing.
Doctors have to rely on specialized equipment to measure blood flow instead of using traditional stethoscopes or blood pressure cuffs.
Imagine being a nurse checking vitals and thinking “uh…this guy has no pulse” until you remember: oh right, he literally has no heartbeat by design.
Wild.
The tech’s been in the works for years
The BiVACOR heart didn’t just pop up overnight. It’s the brainchild of Dr. Daniel Timms, an Australian engineer, who’s been working on it for over a decade.
The first human implant happened in Houston, Texas, at the Texas Heart Institute. And now, with this successful patient in Sydney, they’ve proven the device can keep someone alive and healthy outside a hospital setting.
It’s the sixth successful implant worldwide. And while that might not sound like a lot, in the world of artificial organs? That’s massive.
If you’re as obsessed with medical tech breakthroughs as I am, you’ll also want to read my piece on AI doctors outperforming humans. Spoiler: the robots are catching up fast.
What does this mean for the future?
This could be a turning point in the transplant world. Because let’s be honest: there just aren’t enough donor hearts to go around at the moment.
Every year, thousands of people die waiting for a transplant. If this titanium heart keeps proving itself, it could eventually be a permanent solution, not just a bridge to transplant.
A world where no one has to die waiting for a donor? That’s the dream.
Look, I’m no cardiologist (or doctor of any kind, don’t forget, I just like learning about cool things). But the idea that someone literally lived for 105 days with a titanium spinning disc inside their chest instead of a heart is pretty mind bending stuff.
It makes me wonder what else is just around the corner. Artificial kidneys, lungs, artificial brains? (Okay, maybe I’ve watched too many sci-fi movies at this point.)
Either way, the fact that this guy went home, lived his life, and eventually got a new heart is nothing short of incredible.
And if this is what medicine can do now? I can’t wait to see what’s coming next.
Disclaimer: This article shares the story of an exceptional medical case. It is not medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for guidance regarding your own health.
