USA: First permanent artificial heart implanted in a human displayed at American History Museum 25 years after ground breaking procedure

Nearly three decades after he began his quest to create a completely "forgettable" mechanical heart, Dr. Robert Jarvik's famous Jarvik 7 and Jarvik FlowMaker 2000 hearts are being celebrated as "Treasures of American History" by the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.. The Jarvik 7 artificial heart made headlines worldwide in 1982 when it was implanted in a 61-year-old man who went on to live for 112 days. At a ceremony at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington , Jarvik said his goal for the device was to be something "that a patient could live with where they wouldn't hear it, wouldn't feel it, wouldn't think about it, they would just go about their lives." Jarvik is lending the Jarvik 7 to the museum and donating its more contemporary version, the Jarvik FlowMaker 2000 to the permanent collection. Jarvik's artificial hearts were based on a multi-later diaphragm he created in the early seventies. He is credited with developing the first rotary blood pumps and various other related devices which have enabled hundreds of people to bridge the period between heart failure and transplant. Jarvik says he takes great satisfaction in the fact that the life expectancies of his patients has more than doubled over the course of his career. "Early goals were to make an artificial heart that would work for one year and now our longest patient is six and a half years and we are hoping to see him live more than ten years," Jarvik said. Named inventor of the year in 1983 by the Intellectual Properties Owners Association, Jarvik holds nearly two dozen U.S. and foreign patents regarding artificial hearts and other methods of cardiovascular treatment. The exhibit opens in Washington D.C. February 8, 2007.

ITN Source | February 3, 2007

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