Artificial Heart

An artificial heart is a mechanical device that replaces some or all of the function of a failing natural heart, most often used today as a temporary bridge keeping a patient alive until a donor heart becomes available for transplant. The scientist Vladimir Demikhov built and implanted the first artificial heart into a dog in 1938, decades before the technology reached human patients. A team including Willem Kolff, William DeVries and Robert Jarvik developed the Jarvik-7, and on December 1, 1982, DeVries implanted it as the first artificial heart intended as a permanent replacement in a human patient, the retired dentist Barney Clark, who survived 112 days on the device before dying of multiple organ failure on March 23, 1983.