He tried to save his father by building an artificial heart. His creation could replace organ transplants
Gary Timms had suffered from slowly progressive heart failure for more than five years. But in the end, his passing aged 55 was swift and cruel.
'It was very fast, you know, like from the admission to the ICU, and then it was just… very, very quick,' his son Daniel says, his voice halting briefly.
What comforts Daniel is the fact that his plumber father – 'a real tinkerer' – had helped him for the duration of his illness on a biomedical engineering PhD project that would one day turn near-death for people facing a similar fate into a second life.
The father-and-son duo had worked tirelessly at their family home in Brisbane, Queensland, to make a prototype of what would eventually become the first durable total artificial heart, a mechanical blood pump made from titanium.
The device, made by Daniel's company BiVACOR, with the only metal that isn't rejected by the body, made global headlines last month when it transpired that a recipient in Sydney had become the world's first person to be discharged from hospital with the device in situ.
He lived with the device for more than 100 days before undergoing surgery to receive a donated human heart replacement.
As part of an initial human feasibility study, five heart failure patients in the United States had already previously received the devices – the first procedure took place in Texas last July – but had remained in hospital until a donor heart could be transplanted.
'This patient went home [until his donor heart became available] and was able to be a normal guy, walking the streets of Sydney with a lunch box in his backpack, so yes, it was pretty, pretty good,' Timms says casually.
Pretty good indeed, yet something of a humble understatement. Speaking on the run, during a visit with his BiVACOR senior team to a hospital in Taiwan to discuss this new device, fast-talking Timms, 46, is flying high in a blaze of medical glory but he's had no time to celebrate. The striking inventor had already been hailed as a 'medtech heartthrob' when named as a finalist in the 2021 Global Australian Awards – and now, he's fast becoming a household name.
'I think we're just immersed in it so much that it's hard for us to kind of step aside and go, 'wow',' he says.
In his most candid and detailed interview yet about his father's key practical input into their invention – and his heartbreaking premature death in 2006 – Timms discloses how they would take over the family home with all sorts of metals, wires and plastics as they worked together on developing the early prototypes.
'I wanted to work on inventing something for my PhD that could even save my father's life [after his initial heart attack in 2001] and he was equally committed and excited.'
His mother, Karen, and older brother, Darren, were 'supportive' but Timms admits 'it was really annoying for them'.
'I mean, we're taking over the kitchen and using the oven to mould PVC.'
Their winning combination of skills made the project excel: while his father concentrated on the mechanics of the project, the more academically focused Daniel pored over 'at least' 500 medical studies and reports on heart transplants and the devices that were already being used.
He learnt that while artificial devices had been used in the past, they largely supported only one part of the heart.
'We were able to learn what the limitations were and what we can do to improve on that.
'Dad had pumps and pipes and everything in the backyard, pumping water around the pool, and those pumps have this spinning disc inside them.
'That's also how they pump [pool] waterfalls and slow them down… and it's also how jet skis work. So it's kind of like, 'Oh, well, why can't we use that kind of approach for the body as well? It's just another system, right?''
Developing the early concept was just the start of an arduous 25-year journey, however; it has taken the past 10 years alone to seek regulatory approval, investment and also trust from the transplant medical community: 'We first sought approval from the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] on purpose as it has the strictest standards.'
During the 'calm but tense' operations of each of the six 'very brave' first batch of patients, Timms has been in the theatre himself, overseeing the device being implanted and ensuring it works, alongside a huge medical team.
Dr Paul Jansz, the lead heart transplant surgeon for the Australian procedure at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, speaks of his deep admiration for Timms and shared the vital point in the operation when the device was implanted.
'There's always a sort of lump in your throat as you're cutting the heart out, because that's a seminal moment,' he says.
'Once it [the BiVACOR device] worked, it worked very well, and it immediately supported his circulation.'
As for the patient, a man from New South Wales in his 40s, who has not been named, his clinical presentation after the surgery exceeded expectations.
'Before the surgery, he could barely walk across the room, so he was almost bed-bound,' Dr Jansz explains.
'Patients like this are on a precipice and can go either way; they can just collapse and arrest, or in this case we get them an artificial heart transplant using a device like this one and their kidneys start working better, their liver starts working better.'
As a result, the patients are in more robust health to have their donor heart transplant, when the call comes.
But using the device simply as a stopgap is not the end goal for ambitious Timms.
His aim is for this device to be used for life and to completely replace the need for donor hearts, along with the precariously long waiting lists.
While the 600g device is too large for babies and small children, their widespread approval could potentially decrease the anxiety of parents knowing their child will need to be retransplanted as teenagers or young adults.
'This trial is just a stepping stone to that goal,' he says. 'Ultimately, patients will come to the hospital and get this device and then they don't come back; they have the device for the rest of their life and that will be incredible.'
Timms, who says he's so focused on his work that he has no time for hobbies or even a personal life, hopes that by as early as next year, the current trial of 20 patients (and the further trials that will be required) could expand to more countries, including the UK, depending on regulations and funding.
There is certainly the need: according to the British Heart Foundation, there are more than 7.6 million people living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK.
Tragically, the deeply cherished loved one who Timms says could have benefited from the device is no longer here.
Thankfully, amid his hectic schedule, he's been able to read regular text messages from his mother, Karen, back home in Australia, which remind him of his father's lasting legacy; the lives already saved thanks to his early input.
'She tells me how proud my father would be, and that means a lot… But I know deep down he'd also be saying, 'You've done six, Daniel, but keep your head down and don't get ahead of yourself – there are still many things to do.''
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