Italian doctors in Rome managed to successfully implant the world's smallest artificial heart in a 16-month-baby before conducting another surgery to transplant a real heart. Doctors at Bambino Gesu pediatric hospital used a tiny titanium device invented by American doctor Robert Jarvik and conducted a complex eight-hoursurgery on the baby in March 2012. The device was fitted in order to keep the baby alive for 13 days after which the real heart was transplanted. The baby was diagnosed with a condition known as dilated cardiomyopathy in which the fibres in the heart are stretched or elongated. The doctors fitted the device, weighing just 11 grams, before a donor was found. The operation was extremely complex and the child subsequently underwent a heart transplant. In May 2012, two months after the surgery, Dr Antonio Amodeo, who led the surgery, said in a statement that the child was doing well and was in excellent health”.