Thirty years ago on Dec. 2, 1982, cardiothoracic surgeon William DeVries, MD, carefully removed the ravaged heart of Dr. Barney Clark and replaced it with the world's first permanent artificial heart.

It was implanted in Barney Clark, a 61-year-old retired dentist, on Dec. 2, 1982, at the University of Utah. The surgery was led by Dr. William C. DeVries.

Dr. Barney B. Clark was dying. He was 61, a dentist from Seattle, whose congestive heart failure meant he had trouble walking from bedroom to bathroom, writes Tony Long for Wired.

He was the lead designer of the Jarvik-7, a controversial plastic and metal device intended to permanently replace an ailing human heart.

One of the side effects all of the human recipients have suffered since the Jarvik-7 was first given to Dr. Barney Clark in December 1982 was a stroke.

Barney Clark’s heart was made of plastic — and instead of beating, it whooshed. The 61-year-old retired dentist was in an advanced stage of cardiomyopathy, a progressive weakening of the heart ...

On this day in 1982, William C. DeVries implanted the first permanent artificial heart in Barney Clark; the aluminum and plastic device was called the Jarvik-7. Clark lived for 112 days tethered ...

(Forrest Anderson |AP) Dr. Robert Jarvik, inventor of the artificial heart, Jarvik-7, holds up a model like the one implanted in Barney Clark in Salt Lake City, on Dec. 3, 1982.

It was implanted in Barney Clark, a 61-year-old retired dentist, on Dec. 2, 1982, at the University of Utah. The surgery was led by Dr. William C. DeVries.