Video: ‘A Change of Heart | Retro Report’

(Thursday, December 2, 1982; 7.5 hour operation ended at 7 a.m. MST) — For the first time in history, surgeons early today implanted a permanent artificial heart to replace a dying human heart at the University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

The operation, which lasted seven and a half hours, was performed at the University of Utah Medical Center by a team headed by Dr. William C. DeVries.

The patient was Dr. Barney B. Clark, a 61-year-old retired dentist from the Seattle area. Dr. Clark, who was described as bedridden and on the verge of death from heart failure just before the operation, was reported in critical but stable condition after the operation.

He would survive 112 days with the Jarvik-7 artificial heart, developed by Dr. Robert K. Jarvik, dying on March 23, 1983, having never left the hospital.