World’s First Titanium Heart Keeps Patient Alive

Good Morning, everyone! It’s Monday, and you know what that means: More Good News! Today we will tell you how South Korea recycles almost all of its food waste, how a new DNA test can help prevent a blindness disease in dogs, and we’ll show you the world’s first successful metal heart! Enjoy!

• 🫀 World’s First Titanium Heart Keeps Patient Alive

• 🚭 Indonesia Cracks Down on Smoking Culture

• 🐶 DNA Test Could Eliminate Blindness Disease 

• 🌿 New Method Destroys Dangerous “Forever Chemicals” 

• 🥪 South Korea Recycles 98% of Food Waste

MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS 🧬

World’s First Titanium Heart Keeps Patient Alive

• 10% of people with heart failure receive a transplant

• Titanium heart can keep people alive while waiting for donors

• First transplant successfully kept man alive for 8 days 

• The artificial heart is expected to work for years

Every year, more than 64 million people suffer from heart failure around the world as their heart functions either decline or simply stop working. In serious cases, a heart transplant is needed, but heart donors aren’t always readily available. Of the estimated 50,000 patients needing a heart transplant yearly, only around 5,000 of these operations are performed. It’s exciting, then, to learn that there is now a metal heart that can keep dying patients alive while they await a real human heart!

A US-based biotech company called Bivacor spent the last two decades developing a titanium heart the size of a fist that can perform a heart’s most important function: pumping blood. This year, a 58-year-old man with end-stage heart failure in the United States became the first person in the world to have this metal heart transplant. It was a great success, as the artificial blood pumper kept him alive for 8 days until a donor heart could be sourced. This was the first of five transplants approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the company in 2024, which means we can now eagerly await the results of future tests.

Even though this metal heart transplant had to do its job for just over a week, it’s expected to last many years more because its pumping mechanism produces no friction, and it’s virtually unbreakable! Almost two decades ago, the FDA approved a temporary artificial heart replacement called the SynCardia. This bigger and less durable heart substitute managed to keep a young Michigan man alive for 555 days before he could get a real heart. Biovacor’s metal heart is expected to perform better, and could improve the quality of life for many patients in need of donor hearts.

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