(KSDK) - A heart from a human donor is no longer the only option for people who need a heart transplant. In an increasing number of cases, doctors piggyback mechanical pumps onto the hearts of desperately ill patients. And it''s happening right here in St. Louis.

Just as heart transplants used to be considered a last resort for patients, mechanical pumps were thought to have limited use. But that thinking is changing quickly today.

Thirty-two years ago, St. Louis meat cutter Vincent Dobelman made headlines when he became our area''s first heart transplant patient. The future of this type of operation was considered limited, because the life expectancy was not very good.

Ten months after the transplant Dobelman died when his body rejected the organ.

Today, more than half of people getting heart transplants will live more than ten years. But because of a shortage of donor organs, not everyone who needs one can get it. That means today, more patients are being steered toward new medical technologies, making this the day of the artificial heart.

Two heart attacks put Jim Manley on the heart transplant list. But his health got so bad, he was no longer a candidate. So doctors implanted what''s now considered the next best thing, a left ventricular assist device that beats for his weak heart.

"These devices when they were originally conceptualized were thought only to provide adequate support to patients for very short periods of time, probably measured in days to weeks," says Dr. Joseph Rogers, a Barnes-Jewish Hospital cardiologist.

But patients can live for up to five years with them. They do so well, they can often go back on the transplant waiting list. Whether plugged into electricity or portable batteries, they can live near normal lives.

"In fact one of our patients who was transplanted, was commenting to me that he was cleaning his gutters over the Christmas holidays," says Dr. Nader Moazami, a Barnes-Jewish cardiac surgeon.

Now doctors are working on a new version.

"The device is about this big and it''s totally implantable and it''s completely noiseless," says Dr. Moazami.

Buying precious years for people whose own hearts are failing.

There are limitations with this technology. Many women and young people aren''t candidates for implantable pumps because the devices are just too large.