Zhou Chunyu, a 56-year-old patient from Heilongjiang province, had been suffering for years from severe end-stage heart failure. Due to his failing heart, he struggled even to get out of bed without gasping for air, and his daily life had completely unraveled.

"I was utterly exhausted, unable to do anything. It felt like my whole body had given up," Zhou recalled.

In July, Zhou underwent a procedure at Tianjin TEDA International Cardiovascular Hospital to implant a left ventricular assist device — commonly referred to as an artificial heart.

The device provided support to his weakened heart by pumping blood throughout his body, allowing his fatigued heart muscles to rest. Post-surgery, Zhou experienced full relief from chest tightness and fatigue, regaining the ability to live a normal life.

"I'm capable of doing normal life activities now, and able to talk to you for this half an hour without feeling exhausted," he said during the interview.

Like Zhou, dozens of patients from Zhejiang, Hebei and other provinces are recovering at TICH this summer.

End-stage heart failure represents the final stage in the progression of various heart diseases. Although heart transplantation is considered the ultimate cure, the extreme scarcity of organ donors leaves many patients with no hope of receiving treatment in time.

"Heart donors, especially pediatric donors, are incredibly rare," said Liu Xiaocheng, a doctor, president of TICH and lead researcher of the "Rocket Heart" project. "For patients who have lost hope while waiting for a transplant, an artificial heart offers a vital lifesaving alternative."

The artificial heart implanted in Zhou is nicknamed Rocket Heart, its development the result of an extraordinary cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Back in 1987, Liu had already envisioned creating a domestically developed artificial heart. Later, cases of aerospace technologies being adapted for medical purposes on the international stage inspired him.

Given China's robust foundation in aerospace engineering, Liu pondered whether servomechanism technology, which was originally designed for rocket engine attitude adjustments and precision positioning, could be repurposed to develop an artificial heart.

In 2009, TICH joined hands with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology to launch a pioneering collaboration between medical and engineering fields.

Over more than a decade of efforts, Liu and his interdisciplinary team developed the Rocket Heart, a domestically engineered artificial heart with independent intellectual property rights.

In March 2019, the first Rocket Heart implantation surgery was completed. After receiving the device, end-stage heart failure patient Li Jing's failing heart was given adequate rest, which allowed her cardiac function to recover and ultimately enabled the removal of the device.

By 2022, the first-generation Rocket Heart had been officially approved for market release. To date, over 500 end-stage heart failure patients across China have been given a new lease on life with the help of this device.

The development team's latest breakthrough, Rocket Heart 2.0, embodies years of effort and meticulous enhancement. The second-generation device features a compact and lightweight design, weighing only 75 grams.

As the world's only artificial heart devoid of magnetic levitation bearings or position sensors, Rocket Heart 2.0 achieves a maximum flow rate of 10 liters per minute and boasts a hemolysis index of 0.00088 mg/dL — far surpassing international standards and setting a global benchmark for blood compatibility, Liu said.

Last year, Liu led his team in performing a groundbreaking procedure at Nanjing Children's Hospital, implanting dual Rocket Heart devices in a 12.2-kilogram child with restrictive cardiomyopathy.

This achievement set a new global record for the lowest body weight of a patient undergoing such a procedure. It also demonstrated the feasibility of using Rocket Heart 2.0 to treat low-weight patients.

While children with end-stage heart failure in developed countries continue to rely on the primitive method of "Berlin Heart EXCOR" devices — with tubes protruding from their abdomens and air pumps driving their blood circulation — Chinese children equipped with Rocket Heart now enjoy full mobility and freedom.

"Rocket Heart 2.0 is not merely an iteration; it's a reimagined innovation in both principles and design," Liu explained. "Its core technology has reached world-leading levels, positioning China to transition from being a follower to a leader in artificial heart development."

Thanks to its lightweight and compact design, Rocket Heart 2.0 can serve patients ranging from children to adults with significant body mass, filling a global gap in implanted artificial hearts for small-framed heart failure patients, the research team explained.

Moreover, it is adaptable for assisting with right-sided heart failure, and dual Rocket Heart implantation can largely replace the need for same-species heart transplants, Liu added.

Rocket Heart 2.0 has already completed multi-center clinical trials in 16 hospitals, paving a new path for treating end-stage heart failure patients. The device is expected to receive market approval in the near future.

Artificial heart implantation is not a one-time solution. Patients require long-term device maintenance, blood pressure management and strict anticoagulation protocols.

To meet these needs, TICH has established a dedicated team of artificial heart coordinators to provide discharged patients with ongoing follow-up care and health management services.

"According to follow-up data, the three-year post-implantation survival rate of Rocket Heart patients at TICH has reached 82.6 percent — a full 10 percentage points higher than the 2026 report from an internationally recognized authority," said Zhang Xiujuan, administrative director and client coordinator at TICH's Heart Failure Center.

These follow-up outcomes and the successful treatment of complex cases have enabled China's medical and engineering innovations to transcend local boundaries. They have also earned widespread recognition and acclaim at international academic conferences.

At the World Congress of Artificial Organs in Tokyo last year and the Heart Failure Technologies & Therapeutics Conference in Boston earlier this year, Liu shared clinical experiences involving dual-pump implantation for extremely low-weight children.

Experts from countries such as the United States, Germany and Japan engaged in discussions with TICH representatives regarding potential collaborations and the global introduction of Rocket Heart 2.0.

"I have just returned from Belgium, where a hospital in Brussels showed immense interest in our Rocket Heart 2.0," Liu said. "Additionally, cardiac surgeons at Columbia University in the US have also expressed their desire to bring Rocket Heart 2.0 into their practice."

The development team's commitment to innovation remains unwavering. Highlighting the limitations of existing artificial heart designs, Liu said: "Globally, all currently available artificial hearts rely on transcutaneous power lines to connect to external control units. This approach greatly inconveniences patients' daily lives and increases risks of infection as well as power failure."

To eliminate these risks once and for all, the team is now focused on pioneering the next generation of technologies, which will be fully implantable artificial hearts powered through transcutaneous energy transfer. This ambitious goal represents a potential milestone for the global field of artificial heart development, experts said.

Cai Muzi contributed to this story.

yandongjie@chinadaily.com.cn