The first artificial heart was donated to the American Barney Clark 35 years ago

Salt Lake City / Bratislava, December 2 (TASR) – American Barney Clark was the first person in the world to have an artificial heart in his chest 35 years ago. The operation took place in a hospital in Salt Lake City, United States, on December 2, 1982.

Barney Clark received a Jarvik 7 artificial heart. The author of the laminate and polyurethane artificial heart was Dr. Robert Jarvik of the University of Utah (USA), who made it in 1970. However, it took 12 more. years before an improved device by Dr. William was used in 1982. Kolff and Don Olsen, named Jarvik-7 by their author.

Clark, then a 61-year-old dentist from Seattle, underwent an artificial heart operated on by surgeon William DeVries at the University of Utah.

Unlike later modern versions, the Jarvik-7 heart required an external unit mediated by cables protruding from the patient’s body. The first patient with his new heart survived 112 days. Jarvik’s heart received many other patients, of which William Schroeder lived the longest: 620 days.

An artificial heart has also developed in the United States that does not depend on external energy supplies. It is powered by a battery, which is implanted under the skin and is charged externally by induction. The device the size of a grapefruit weighing one kilogram was called AbioCora. These hearts were first implanted in a patient in the United States in July 2001.

The 47-year-old man was implanted with the artificial heart of a 47-year-old man on 1 November 2017 at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NÚSCH) in Bratislava.