A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
On Dec. 2, 1982, in the first operation of its kind, doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Dr. Barney Clark, who lived 112 days with the device.
According to Deseret News reporting at the time, doctors from the University of Utah had been working on developing a device since 1967, culminating in the Jarvik-7 heart.
The world’s first permanent artificial heart, it was made of aluminum and polyurethane and connected to a 400-pound air compressor. Led by Dr. Willem Kolff, Dr. Robert Jarvik and Dr. William DeVries, only animals had been used in experiments at that point.
The surgery took place on Dec. 2, after Clark reportedly told his wife he loved her “with all my natural heart.”
Then, for 112 days — from Dec. 2, 1982, to March 23, 1983 — the world watched and waited. The daily — sometimes hourly — fortunes of Clark, a retired Seattle dentist, were reported in detail as he weathered the ups and downs of life with an artificial heart. The University of Utah Hospital was besieged with requests for information about its famous patient.
Here are some articles from the Deseret News archives about Clark, the team that performed the surgery, and what was gained by the advances and lessons learned from the experience:
“Family, doctors pay tribute to Barney Clark”
“Writing about historic implant was heartwarming experience”
“‘82 heart implant sparked progress”
“New artificial hearts pumping up hopes”
“Book review: ‘True Valor’ delivers fascinating account of historic operation”
“Doctors look back on drama of Clark heart experiment”
“Breakthrough brings back memories of Barney Clark”
“Scrapbook of the 20th Century: Dec. 2, 1982: Barney Clark and the Jarvik 7 artificial heart”
“Clark’s ‘82 Jarvik heart is going to a museum”
“Barney Clark’s legacy lives on; Heart technology is beating the odds and helping to save lives”
“Artificial-heart recipient ties Barney Clark record”
An interesting note: Almost exactly 15 years earlier, on Dec. 3, 1967, a surgical team in Cape Town, South Africa, led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard, performed the first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky, who lived 18 days with the donated organ from Denise Darvall, a 25-year-old bank clerk who had died in a traffic accident.