Artificial Heart Implanted: Jarvik Saves Barney Clark
William DeVries implanted the first permanent artificial heart into retired dentist Barney Bailey Clark on December 2, 1982, launching a new era of cardiac surgery that proved humans could survive months with mechanical hearts. This breakthrough directly enabled the creation of the modern SynCardia Total Artificial Heart, which now serves as a life-saving bridge to transplantation for over 1,350 patients worldwide.
December 2, 1982
44 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on December 2
Pope Innocent IV arrived in Lyon to escape the suffocating political pressure of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, turning the French city into the temporary hea…
The University of Leipzig opened because German masters at Prague got tired of being outvoted 3-to-1 by Bohemian colleagues. King Wenceslaus IV had just flipped…
Sir Christopher Wren's St Paul's Cathedral rises from the ashes of the Great Fire, finally receiving its consecration on this day. The new structure replaced th…
Christopher Wren watched his cathedral open after 35 years of construction — he was 65, had survived the Great Fire that leveled the old cathedral, fought with …
The keeper's wife lit a candle to inspect the lantern room. Within minutes, flames had engulfed John Smeaton's wooden tower — the one that had replaced the orig…
The building still stands. But in 1763, Newport's Jewish congregation numbered maybe 58 families — Portuguese and Spanish refugees who'd fled the Inquisition th…
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