The following are landmarks in the development of the artificial heart:
1953: A heart-lung machine designed by Dr. John Gibbon is used in a successful open-heart surgery, demonstrating that an artifical device can temporarily mimic the functions of the heart.
1964: The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute sets a goal of designing a total artificial heart by 1970.
1966: Dr. Michael DeBakey of Houston successfully implants a partial artificial heart.
1967: Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the first successful human heart transplant. The patient, 53-year-old dentist Louis Washkansky, dies 18 days after surgery in South Africa.
1969: A total artifical heart is implanted into a patient by Dr. Denton Cooley of the Texas Heart Institute. The patient gets a heart transplant three days later but then dies 1 days afterward.
1982-85: Dr. William DeVries carries out a series of five implants of the Jarvik total artificial heart. The first patient, Barney Clark, survives for 112 days. Only four others received the Jarvik as a permanent replacement heart; one, William Schroeder, lived 620 days, dying in August 1986 at age 54. Other patients received the Jarvik as a temporary device while awaiting heart transplants.
1994: The Food and Drug Administration approves the Left Ventricular Assist Device, which helps failing hearts continue to function.
2000: A man in Israel becomes the first recipient of the Jarvik 2000, the first total artificial heart that can maintain blood flow in addition to generating a pulse.
2001: Doctors at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky., implant the first self-contained, mechanical heart replacement into a patient. The device, called the AbioCor, is battery powered and the size of a softball.
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