Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital says it has recently performed the Southern Hemisphere's first total artificial heart implant.
Angelo Tigano, 50, from Fairfield in Sydney's west, was suffering from total heart failure after having idiopathic cardiomyopathy for more than 10 years.
He was selected to have the implant because without it he may have had less than two weeks to live.
Mr Tigano underwent five hours of surgery, during which his own heart was removed and replaced with a mechanical device.
It mimics the function of both the left and right heart ventricles, which are responsible for pumping blood.
The device is said to provide up to 9.5 litres of bloodflow throughout the body per minute.
The hospital says the 50-year-old should now be able to live a relatively normal life until a heart transplant becomes available.
Mr Tigano has urged more people to make the decision to become an organ donor.
"Please write on the back of your licence, make that decision," he said.
"Coming from my side of things, I am very grateful. It's only the start for me, it's only just temporary and I need a heart.
"Just [be] aware that there are so many sick people out there and people just die."
The head of the hospital's Heart and Lung Transplant Unit, Phillip Spratt, says federal funding is needed to continue the successful implanting of artificial hearts.
Dr Spratt is hopeful that negotiations with the Government will be successful.
"The results of this technology have been proven, and they're very good, as long as they're conducted in a program like this," he said.
"So it's only a matter of time, we feel, before our health system has to accept that this is something that should be funded."
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Australia, killing more than 40,000 people in 2007
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