May 28, 2002
Beating
more than 2.5 million times over the course of an average
lifetime, the human heart is the hardest working organ in
the body- and the most vital. Its failure is often the event
that ends our lives. Each year in the United States, approximately
45,000 people need heart transplants. As Alan Alda learns
first-hand in Search for
the Perfect Heart, the artificial heart has long been
one of the Holy Grails of medicine. Though early experimentation
left the public disenchanted with artificial hearts, a new
generation of man-made devices promises to extend the lives
of hundreds of thousands in the coming decades.
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Early Attempts
In
1964, faced with sky-high levels of heart disease among the
general population, the National Heart Institute allocated
$600,000 for the development of a permanent artificial heart
by 1970. By 1969, Dr. Denton Cooley of Baylor Medical College
in Texas implanted the first artificial heart into an Illinois
man. The two-chambered device functioned much like a natural
heart with one big exception. It was powered by enormous air
pumps outside of the body, using hoses to pass through the
patient's body wall and into the circulatory system.
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| In
1964, Haskell Karp lived for just three days supported
by this Liotta artificial heart. |
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Haskell Karp's artificial heart kept him alive for two and
half days until a donor heart was found; however, Karp died
shortly after the transplant.
Barney
Clarke
Nearly
twenty years would pass before another artificial heart recipient
would inspire hope among doctors and the general public alike.
In 1982, Dr. William DeVries of the University of Utah implanted
a 61-year-old dentist named Barney Clark with an artificial
heart called Jarvik 7. Since Clark was too sick to be eligible
for a donated heart, Clark's implant would be permanent. The
procedure turned into a media event.
 |
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| The
world was watching as Barney Clark survived 112 days with
his artificial heart. |
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Like
Karp's temporary heart, Jarvik 7 was an air-driven pump, and
Clark was bound to the washing machine-sized air compressor
that powered it. As with Karp, tubes from the compressor passed
through Clark's chest wall, restricting him to his bed and
causing constant infections. What's more, Clark's blood kept
clotting as it passed through the imperfect man-made pump.
Clark suffered a number of strokes before he died 112 days
after his implantation. 
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pages: | 1 | 2 | 3
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Photos:
Texas Heart Institute
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