Who was the first person to receive the Jarvik-7 permanent artificial heart?

Barney Clark was the first person to receive the Jarvik-7 permanent artificial heart.

Cardiologist William DeVries implanted the device in Clark on 2 December 1982 at the University of Utah Medical Center. The artificial heart had been designed by physician-engineer Robert Jarvik and was intended to replace the pumping action of the two lower chambers of the natural heart.

Clark was a 61-year-old dentist with severe heart failure. The device was connected to a large external pneumatic power system, so he could not live independently in the way patients with modern implanted devices often can. He survived for 112 days after the operation.

The operation demonstrated that a total artificial heart could sustain human life, but it was not a general replacement for transplantation. Complications included infection, bleeding, stroke, and problems with the external equipment. Today, artificial hearts are used mainly as bridges to transplantation or in carefully selected circumstances.