Just like essentially every other piece of technology, artificial hearts are getting smaller and smaller — a fact a team of scientists used to save the life of a 16-month-old infant. The baby, who has not been identified, had a diseased heart, requiring a transplant, but was too young for the procedure. When a “ventricular assistance device” became infected, the baby's doctors at the Bambino Geus Hospital in Rome had to make a radical move — and so implanted the 11-gram titanium heart. Two weeks later, a real heart became available — and following the transplant, the baby has a real future ahead.
