"Gosh, I wonder if this is going to make the local papers tomorrow," he remembers wondering.Įven in decline, Clark was a large man, about 200 pounds and over 6 feet tall, blessed with a chest that could accommodate what was a large, multichamber device. He flew in during a mammoth snowstorm and went straight to the U., where he was also on the faculty, to watch the operation. He was willing to try," Anderson says.Īnderson was out of town when Clark's heart began the decline that would speed up the timeline for the historic surgery. He realized that with a first one, a lot can go wrong. was planning to implant someone they were looking for the right candidate.Īnderson told DeVries about Clark, a man he recalls as "sophisticated medically and willing to be a guinea pig." Anderson sent Clark to see DeVries, and Clark's journey into history began. They chatted about the U's artificial heart program. fieldhouse, where he and DeVries had each been working out. That worked for a couple of years, then Clark began to fail rapidly.Ībout that time, Anderson had what he now calls a "key encounter in a hot tub" at the U. So Anderson managed his heart disease with medical therapy and clinical trials, "the latest and greatest at the time," he says today. He was over 60 and had other medical problems. Initially, Clark was not a candidate for a human heart transplant. LDS was just starting up a heart transplant program. He consulted a young doctor at LDS Hospital, Jeffrey Anderson, now associate chief of cardiology at Intermountain Medical Center. He'd married UnaLoy Mason and they had three grown children, Stephen, Gary and Karen. Many of the biggest names in heart repair - mechanical and medicinal - will gather Friday and Saturday to compare notes, celebrate Clark's legacy and discuss the future of cardiovascular treatment in a world where heart disease is the leading cause of death.īarney Clark was born and educated in Provo, a Utah boy who moved to Seattle to study dentistry and stayed until the failure of his heart brought him back to seek care, first at LDS Hospital and later in the U.'s artificial heart program. officials and the Utah Artificial Heart Institute will host a two-day symposium at Huntsman Cancer Institute to mark the milestone. William DeVries, implanted the Jarvik-7 artificial heart in the failing body of the Seattle dentist, so the anniversary is a fitting time to look at what led to the groundbreaking surgery and what has followed. 1, 1982 - as the first human to receive a total artificial heart, with FDA approval.Ī quarter century has passed since a University of Utah team, led by Dr. Countless calves and sheep, pounds of plastic and Dacron, miles of tubing, a hot tub and hundreds of bright minds and willing hands figuratively lined the road on which Barney Clark made his journey into medical history on Dec.
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