After the team tested its patch on a mouse, the rodent's heart saw a "significant increase" in functional capacity in the space of 4 weeks. Moreover, it eventually absorbed into the heart -- the team didn't have to perform follow-up operations to make sure it was a good fit.

Naturally, a mouse heart is easier to fix than a much larger human heart. The researchers see this as just a matter of time, though. They believe that human-scale patches should be viable "within the next several years." If so, recovering from a heart attack may just be a matter of implanting some custom-printed tissue and waiting for your health to improve.