Jarvik-7 was the first artificial heart implanted as a permanent replacement in a human patient.
Surgeon William DeVries implanted the Jarvik-7 in Barney Clark at the University of Utah Medical Center in 1982. The device replaced both ventricles and used an external pneumatic system to drive blood through the body. Clark lived for 112 days after the operation, making the procedure a dramatic proof that a mechanical heart could sustain human life.
The Jarvik-7 was not a small, fully self-contained electronic heart. Its external power and air system limited mobility and required substantial medical support. The operation also did not create a routine cure for heart failure; it demonstrated a possible bridge or replacement technology while exposing major engineering and medical challenges.
The device was later renamed the CardioWest Total Artificial Heart and eventually became associated with the SynCardia system. Barney Clark is therefore linked to the first permanent artificial-heart implantation, not to the first transplant of a biological heart.