Scientists and doctors have been making huge strides in the area of organ transplants for years, but lately have turned their attention to creating new organs from non-organic materials, instead.

And if you ask one Australian patient, his titanium heart is as good as the real thing.

The patient, who is male and in his 40s, is the first to survive for more than 100 days after an artificial heart transplant, and the first patient to be discharged from the hospital with the titanium heart in place.

He became a candidate for a transplant due to severe heart failure, where the heart is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. Donor hearts are hard to find, though, and with 6.7 million people out there vying for 4,500 or so hearts able to be transplanted, well…it’s clear why we desperately need another option.

This titanium heart was designed by BiVACOR, a medical device company. They first implanted one into a human in July of 2024. The heart works by using a magnetically suspended rotor to push blood through the implant and then into the arteries and veins that carry it through the body.

The company and the surgeons, like Dr. Paul Janz, were hopeful but nervous when they began this attempt.

“There were definitely nerves, especially when Daniel [Timms, the inventory of BiVACOR] flicked the switch and turned the artificial heart on.”

The surgery was a success beyond what they hoped and planned for, as the heart is meant to be a temporary stop-gap that will let people live healthy lives until a donor heart becomes available.

In this case, the patient lived at home with his titanium heart for about a month before he underwent a successful heart transplant with living human tissue.

He’s recovering well, and as a test case, couldn’t be considered a better outcome.

As technology and testing evolve, the company hopes their titanium hearts will last longer and longer in the human body, perhaps even getting to the point where they can replace human tissue transplants permanently.

For now, they’re giving patients like this one a second lease on life.

And for anyone who has been in this distressing situation, every little bit of hope helps.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read a story that reveals Earth’s priciest precious metal isn’t gold or platinum and costs over $10,000 an ounce!