US man receives bionic heart

The first ever completely internal artificial heart has been implanted in a Lousiville hospital. Well, it was actually implanted into some guy's chest, but you know what I mean. The artificial heart is the first of five such devices that will be

The first ever completely internal artificial heart has been implanted in a Lousiville hospital. Well, it was actually implanted into some guy's chest, but you know what I mean. The artificial heart is the first of five such devices that will be implanted into sufferers of terminal heart illness over the next year - assuming the first patient survives the operation.

The heart is controlled by an internal pump, and powered bay an internal battery that can carry charge for up to one half hour. That may sound a little inconvenient, but the real breakthrough comes from having a transduction device that can recharge the internal battery from an external one that can be worn around the waist. There are no wires hanging out of the patient, so far less case for infection or rejection.

Now the inventors of the heart, researchers and doctors at Abiomed, have to sit back and wait for the proud new owner of their bionic heart to recover from the operation. Then, it's an intensive round of running in slow motion, leaping to impossible heights, punching people and having them fly across the room, and making odd, wang-a-wang-wang-a-wang noises.