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Barney B. Clark
first recipient of permanent artificial heart
On his unique experience
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from Science and Technology >
Barney B. Clark
first recipient of permanent artificial heart
It's been a pleasure to be able to help people, and maybe you folks learned something.
On December 2, 1982, Barney B. Clark, a sixty-one-year-old retired dentist, had his diseased heart replaced by the ‘Jarvick 7’--the world's first permanent artificial heart. The successful transplant operation was performed by Dr. William C. DeVries at the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City. Dr. Robert Jarvick designed the aluminum-and-plastic artificial heart to replace the two lower ventricles of the natural heart. The device was kept beating by an external compressor attached to the implant by hoses, and Mr. Clark was forced to remain inactive. He survived for 112 days, finally succumbing to complications caused by the implant, on March 23, 1983. Here, Clark is heard speaking to the press three weeks before his death.