March 14, 2025 • 7 mins
An Australian patient has this week survived100 days with an artificial heart.
The success is a world first and is another step towards decreasing the number of deaths caused by cardiac failure.
Australian engineer Daniel Timms invented the ground-breaking artificial heart and talks to Ryan Bridge about how the heart works, how he invented it, how its powered, and what the development means for medicine.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now, we're heading to Australia. Doctors there have made
history this week. The patient became the first person in
the world to live with a mechanical heart for more
than one hundred days before receiving a donor heart transplant
and been able to live. The artificial heart was invented
by Australian engineer Dr Daniel Timms. He is said to
be it is said to be a huge step forward
(00:23):
in heart medicine. Dr Daniel tims is with me now.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good A how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Really good? Thanks for being with me. Can you describe
for our listeners what this artificial heart looks like.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, actually, it looks like something you might pull out
of the under the kitchen sink. It looks like a
titanium pump. Some people even described it as a nineteen
seventy four DUTs in carburetta. It does not look like
an artificial heart, but it absolutely functions like a normal
heart and that's really what the key is and the
groundbreaking design of this device.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Oh and I want to come to that it's sick.
But how did you come up with the design? That
was twenty years ago that you first sort of invented
it and it was to do with your dad.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Right, totally. Yeah, So he was a plumber by training.
Unfortunately around about a stage where I was completing my
engineering studies and mechanical engineering, and unfortunately he developed heart failure.
So we're like, well, what can I apply my engineering
skills too? Maybe tried to work on a pump that
might be able to pump the blood around, might be
(01:26):
able to help him one day. But together we worked
on that for probably five or six years, you know,
going bits and bobs, no money at all, but just
going to local hardware stores and just trying out different
prototypes of what ideas we might be able to make.
But yeah, effectively the idea was born out of you
know that backgrounds.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
What is the hard bit about making an artificial heart?
What is the biggest challenge that you faced when you're
trying to do this?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Durability? So you can imagine, and it's so scary, like
you're pulling out somebody's heart completely and you put a
machine in its place, and you're relying on that cannot
stop right, so it can't wear out. And our previous
artificial hearts they're attempted to mimic the way that the
natural heart beats. So you have a compressed air sack
or bladder with four mechanical valves. There's lots of moving
(02:14):
parts and squeezing things that can eventually wear out, so
they are only used for a bridge, like a temporary
support device. What we wanted to do was make a
durable device that could last forever, and the way we
did that was doing away with that squeezing action of
the heart and instead used a spinning disc basically, a
rapidly spinning disc like an FN or a propeller on
(02:34):
the back of a boat to propel the blood forward.
And that disc is magnetically levitated, so we use levitations
like they do in the trains in Asia, so there's
no friction, there's no mechanical where the thing is durable,
which is the biggest challenge with an artificial heart.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Does it need a battery?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
It does, so the device is powered through a wire
that protrudes through the tummy basically, and it goes off
to a lunch box sized control box that has batteries attached,
and those batteries power of the device through that way.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
This patient who doesn't want to be named, so we
can't use their name, but you've met with this patient,
what did it do for them? And how long was
it inside them?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, so it was remarkably life changing for the patient.
He could barely walk ten meters from his bed prior
to the surgery with the artificial heart, and after he
got the heart, he had the device for three and
a half months, just over one hundred days, and that
was enabling him actually to leave the hospital, walk around
the streets of Sydney, going shopping, going about his normal
(03:39):
daily activities, something that he'd never had a chance to
be able to do when he was suffering from heart failure,
and that all.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Had enough time in order to get a heart transplant.
So it's buying time basically.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, I mean, that's the initial stage that we're utilizing
the device for, is to buy a time until a
transplant can be made availed and also recover the patient
so all the other organs that are suffering from low
blood flow from heart failure get better. But our ultimate
goal on the back of their success is to eventually
have patients not have to return to the hospital to
get a heart transplant at all and they just remain
(04:15):
on this device for the rest of their life.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So one day we might not need human hearts.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
That's a pretty lofty goal. But at the end of
the day as well, like heart transplantation doesn't have its limitation.
You know, there's fifty percent survival at ten years to
the anti rejection drugs. You're putting somebody else's heart in
your body. The body doesn't know it, it doesn't like
it being there, so it tries to reject it out.
Got to really reduce your rein system in those recipients,
and that comes with a lot of complications that end
(04:44):
up in you know, not the greatest outcome after a
period of time.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
It's quite a personal thing a heart obviously. How does
it feel, especially given the history of this with your dad,
How does it feel knowing that this man, this patient
was walking around with something you invented in them and
that was basically keeping them going.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, it was pretty surreal. I mean I spent a
lot of time with the patient over that duration of time,
firstly to give him a bit of confidence that we're
there all the time, but also to learn from him.
You know, how do you feel, is there anything we
can do differently to make your quality of life better
so we can keep improving it for the next patient,
and actually he was brought in entirely to that he
(05:28):
felt and it actually kind of comes out in the
fact that he wanted to remain anonymous. Is the fact
that he was doing this for himself obviously, but then
also for all the patients. It could come beyond him.
So he brought into the idea of giving us that
feedback and understanding of how he was feeling and what
we can do into the future.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
What did he say about how it felt?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Actually we asked him that directly, like can you feel
it at all? I mean, He's like, no, I can't
feel it at all. And he said, the only time
I could hear it was in the debt of the
night when I went home in the hospital. There's deeps
and all that you can't hear, and the dead of
the night in the middle of a NYCAD could just
hear a little bit of a warring, you know, like oooh.
And that was about it.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Pretty incredible. What's the reaction being like to this, to
this development, particularly with this patient, but to the invention
in general. What's the reaction being like from you know,
the medical fraternity and from patients.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah, I mean, it's pretty much providing hope for patients, right,
because there's a lot of patients out there that just
don't have any hope. They're waiting for a heart transplant
that may not ever come. So yeah, from them, it
gives them that hope. From the medical community, they understand.
For decades people have been trying to develop an artificial
heart as an alternative to transplant because there just aren't
(06:43):
enough donor organs around for all those that need it.
The medical community is extremely excited and you know, bullish
on this kind of technology because artificial heart is durable,
is something that's been out of grass for all of
those decades, and finally there's something available here that might
be able to challenge the usual standards care of heart
(07:04):
family patients.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
What do you reckon your dad would think of all this, Daniel, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
He'd be pretty he'd be pretty stoked. But yeah it
is you know myself as while staying humble and knowing
there's so many milestones that had so who just be
is like that's a good little mile stone, Daniel, but
there's still plenty more to co So keep your head down.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
And keep working well, keep up the good work, because
you're doing good work for all of us. Daniel really
appreciate your time. It's doctor Daniel Tamases, the inventor Australian
inventor of an artificial heart.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
Right now, we're heading to Australia. Doctors there have made
history this week. The patient became the first person in
the world to live with a mechanical heart for more
than one hundred days before receiving a donor heart transplant
and been able to live. The artificial heart was invented
by Australian engineer Dr Daniel Timms. He is said to
be it is said to be a huge step forward
(00:23):
in heart medicine. Dr Daniel tims is with me now.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good A how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Really good? Thanks for being with me. Can you describe
for our listeners what this artificial heart looks like.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, actually, it looks like something you might pull out
of the under the kitchen sink. It looks like a
titanium pump. Some people even described it as a nineteen
seventy four DUTs in carburetta. It does not look like
an artificial heart, but it absolutely functions like a normal
heart and that's really what the key is and the
groundbreaking design of this device.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Oh and I want to come to that it's sick.
But how did you come up with the design? That
was twenty years ago that you first sort of invented
it and it was to do with your dad.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Right, totally. Yeah, So he was a plumber by training.
Unfortunately around about a stage where I was completing my
engineering studies and mechanical engineering, and unfortunately he developed heart failure.
So we're like, well, what can I apply my engineering
skills too? Maybe tried to work on a pump that
might be able to pump the blood around, might be
(01:26):
able to help him one day. But together we worked
on that for probably five or six years, you know,
going bits and bobs, no money at all, but just
going to local hardware stores and just trying out different
prototypes of what ideas we might be able to make.
But yeah, effectively the idea was born out of you
know that backgrounds.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
What is the hard bit about making an artificial heart?
What is the biggest challenge that you faced when you're
trying to do this?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Durability? So you can imagine, and it's so scary, like
you're pulling out somebody's heart completely and you put a
machine in its place, and you're relying on that cannot
stop right, so it can't wear out. And our previous
artificial hearts they're attempted to mimic the way that the
natural heart beats. So you have a compressed air sack
or bladder with four mechanical valves. There's lots of moving
(02:14):
parts and squeezing things that can eventually wear out, so
they are only used for a bridge, like a temporary
support device. What we wanted to do was make a
durable device that could last forever, and the way we
did that was doing away with that squeezing action of
the heart and instead used a spinning disc basically, a
rapidly spinning disc like an FN or a propeller on
(02:34):
the back of a boat to propel the blood forward.
And that disc is magnetically levitated, so we use levitations
like they do in the trains in Asia, so there's
no friction, there's no mechanical where the thing is durable,
which is the biggest challenge with an artificial heart.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Does it need a battery?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
It does, so the device is powered through a wire
that protrudes through the tummy basically, and it goes off
to a lunch box sized control box that has batteries attached,
and those batteries power of the device through that way.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
This patient who doesn't want to be named, so we
can't use their name, but you've met with this patient,
what did it do for them? And how long was
it inside them?
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, so it was remarkably life changing for the patient.
He could barely walk ten meters from his bed prior
to the surgery with the artificial heart, and after he
got the heart, he had the device for three and
a half months, just over one hundred days, and that
was enabling him actually to leave the hospital, walk around
the streets of Sydney, going shopping, going about his normal
(03:39):
daily activities, something that he'd never had a chance to
be able to do when he was suffering from heart failure,
and that all.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Had enough time in order to get a heart transplant.
So it's buying time basically.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, I mean, that's the initial stage that we're utilizing
the device for, is to buy a time until a
transplant can be made availed and also recover the patient
so all the other organs that are suffering from low
blood flow from heart failure get better. But our ultimate
goal on the back of their success is to eventually
have patients not have to return to the hospital to
get a heart transplant at all and they just remain
(04:15):
on this device for the rest of their life.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So one day we might not need human hearts.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
That's a pretty lofty goal. But at the end of
the day as well, like heart transplantation doesn't have its limitation.
You know, there's fifty percent survival at ten years to
the anti rejection drugs. You're putting somebody else's heart in
your body. The body doesn't know it, it doesn't like
it being there, so it tries to reject it out.
Got to really reduce your rein system in those recipients,
and that comes with a lot of complications that end
(04:44):
up in you know, not the greatest outcome after a
period of time.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
It's quite a personal thing a heart obviously. How does
it feel, especially given the history of this with your dad,
How does it feel knowing that this man, this patient
was walking around with something you invented in them and
that was basically keeping them going.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, it was pretty surreal. I mean I spent a
lot of time with the patient over that duration of time,
firstly to give him a bit of confidence that we're
there all the time, but also to learn from him.
You know, how do you feel, is there anything we
can do differently to make your quality of life better
so we can keep improving it for the next patient,
and actually he was brought in entirely to that he
(05:28):
felt and it actually kind of comes out in the
fact that he wanted to remain anonymous. Is the fact
that he was doing this for himself obviously, but then
also for all the patients. It could come beyond him.
So he brought into the idea of giving us that
feedback and understanding of how he was feeling and what
we can do into the future.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
What did he say about how it felt?
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Actually we asked him that directly, like can you feel
it at all? I mean, He's like, no, I can't
feel it at all. And he said, the only time
I could hear it was in the debt of the
night when I went home in the hospital. There's deeps
and all that you can't hear, and the dead of
the night in the middle of a NYCAD could just
hear a little bit of a warring, you know, like oooh.
And that was about it.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Pretty incredible. What's the reaction being like to this, to
this development, particularly with this patient, but to the invention
in general. What's the reaction being like from you know,
the medical fraternity and from patients.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah, I mean, it's pretty much providing hope for patients, right,
because there's a lot of patients out there that just
don't have any hope. They're waiting for a heart transplant
that may not ever come. So yeah, from them, it
gives them that hope. From the medical community, they understand.
For decades people have been trying to develop an artificial
heart as an alternative to transplant because there just aren't
(06:43):
enough donor organs around for all those that need it.
The medical community is extremely excited and you know, bullish
on this kind of technology because artificial heart is durable,
is something that's been out of grass for all of
those decades, and finally there's something available here that might
be able to challenge the usual standards care of heart
(07:04):
family patients.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
What do you reckon your dad would think of all this, Daniel, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
He'd be pretty he'd be pretty stoked. But yeah it
is you know myself as while staying humble and knowing
there's so many milestones that had so who just be
is like that's a good little mile stone, Daniel, but
there's still plenty more to co So keep your head down.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
And keep working well, keep up the good work, because
you're doing good work for all of us. Daniel really
appreciate your time. It's doctor Daniel Tamases, the inventor Australian
inventor of an artificial heart.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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