Email

World’s first ARTIFICIAL heart transplanted into patient

Artificial heart - Getty

The heart weighs 2lb – three times the weight of a real heart – and contains bovine tissue and sensors that adapt the blood flow.

Artificial heart – Getty

The world’s first artificial ­replacement heart has been transplanted into a patient.

The device, which will run for at least five years, was given to a male patient.

Medics said he was awake, talking and “responding well” yesterday after Wednesday’s operation.

The heart weighs 2lb – three times the weight of a real heart – and contains bovine tissue and sensors that adapt the blood flow.

Developed by Airbus owner EADS, it is powered by batteries worn outside the body.

If it is made widely available it is expected to cost about £150,000.

The operation took place at Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris.

Surgeon Alain Carpentier said: “It’s about giving patients a normal social life.”

Related posts

UK Conservative Party picks Kemi Badenoch as its new leader in wake of election defeat

US election: what a Trump victory would mean for the rest of the world

US-Africa relations under Biden: a mismatch between talk and action