Doctors in Italy have implanted for the first time in the world a permanent artificial heart into a 15-year-old boy, Italian news agency ANSA reported on Saturday. Heart surgeons at Rome's Bambino Gesu Children's Hospital carried out the 10-hour breakthrough operation on Thursday, implanting an artificial heart to be used on a permanent basis rather than a more common temporary artificial heart. Usually temporary artificial hearts are used for patients awaiting a suitable human transplant, but the boy suffered from an illness that made a long wait impossible.