Judy Chernick still remembers the first time she held an artificial heart. In the fall of 1987, when she had just started working at the Smithsonian, she put on her curatorial gloves and touched the museum's new Jarvik 7 as part of an exhibit celebrating the centennial of the National Institutes of Health. The heart looked like a pair of goggles, lighter and smoother than she expected. The content reminded her of Barney Clark, a man with a large number of heart valves who donated his unusual collection, said Chelnick, curator of medicine and science at the National Museum of American History. '
'" This was my first 'oh wow' Jarvik 7 moment at the Smithsonian Institution. "It was an absolute s*** to hold it," she said. Through the glove, the Jarvik 7 felt "like a piece of Tupperware," Chernik said. The artificial heart's two ventricles are held together by Velcro, a peculiarity that "always felt different and interesting and strange," she added.
It's Jarvik Robert Jarvik, president and CEO of heart (founded in 1988), a total artificial heart invented and produced by researchers at the University of Utah in the mid-1970s. In addition to the artificial heart, Jarvik also invented the battery-sized Jarvik 2000 blood pump.
The particular heart Chernik handled was transplanted into a patient 30 years ago this week, Michael Drummond, an assistant manager at a Phoenix grocery store. On August 29, 1985, the 25-year-old became the sixth patient to undergo artificial heart surgery and the youngest patient to receive artificial heart surgery at that time. This is the first time a heart pump has been used as a "bridge transplant" to extend life until a person's heart can be found. Nine days later, Drummond received a human heart. He lived for nearly five more years,
(Left to right) Nina Trasov, Richard Smith, Mark Levinson, Robert Jarvik, Michael De Lamond and Jack Copeland announced the first successful use of the Jarvik Type 7 artificial heart as a bridge to transplantation at a 1985 press conference. (? 1985 Arizona Board of Regents/University of Arizona Health Sciences Bioletters) "KDSP" As the anniversary of heart transplants approaches, the Museum of American History recently received a donation from the University of Tucson, two modern hearts from SynCardia, Arizona. - One SynCardia 70ml Total Artificial Heart and one SynCardia 50ml Total Artificial Heart, as well as a slice of the 70ml model that allows visitors to see inside the ventricles - a backpack and a portable driver. The latter is external to the body and provides energy to the heart. Jarvik's famous 1977 artificial heart prototype is currently on display in the museum's new exhibition "American Inventions," presented in partnership with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A SynCardia 70cc total artificial heart (left) and a SynCardia 50cc total artificial heart (SynCardia Systems, the first successful one was performed by South African surgeon Christian Barnard on Louis Washkansky on December 3, 1967 The human heart transplant; the patient, a Cape Town grocery store owner, lived for another 18 days, surgeon William DeVries, a dentist at University of Utah Hospital, died on December 2, 1982. ·A Jarvik 7 artificial heart was implanted in Clark. Clark lived for 112 days. This was the first permanent artificial heart implanted in a patient.
Drummond came almost three years later. The accepted Jarvik 7 was the first successful "bridge" in history to authorize a successful artificial heart transplant to a human heart. The word "authorized" is also significant because another 1969 artificial heart transplant is still shrouded in controversy. The patient lived less than two days after the transplant. The *** said the tension between doctors who had collaborated on the technology was "one of the most famous feuds in medicine - certainly one that has the longest lifespan". of one.
On November 13, 1979, Robert Jarvik received a patent for his "Total Artificial Heart and Heart Assist Device Driven and Controlled by a Reversible Electro-Hydraulic Energy Converter." (USPTO) The artificial heart obtained by "KDSP" Drummond was the first product of Kolf Medical (Robert Jarvik was the CEO); renamed Symbion in 1983; FDA closed Symbion in 1990 (for violating FDA guidelines and regulations) , transferred its artificial heart technology to CardioWest; in 2001, the company became SynCardia. Thirty years after his heart treatment in Drummond, artificial hearts haven't changed all that much, said Craig Selzman, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Utah and the site of Barney Clark's 1982 transplant.
"Interestingly, Jarvik 7 is very similar to the FDA-approved Total Artificial Heart (TAH), which is now owned by SynCardia," Selzman said. "Of course, there have been some improvements over the past 30 years, but it is functionally very similar to the device that Barney Clark and Michael Drummond received." Despite the National Institutes of Health's efforts to advance the field, "Jarvik-7 remains is the basic design that sits on the shelves today, he added:
The artificial heart and other artifacts found in the museum's medical collection were donated by businesses, institutions, medical facilities and families because of their historical significance (Drummond's Jarvik 7 was later donated to the Smithsonian by the University of Arizona Medical Center, where his surgery was performed.)
"There's an element of discomfort sometimes, but you get out of it. We have a lot of them in our collection," Chelnick said. But, she added, most visitors who see artificial hearts in exhibits and educational programs are fascinated by them. "A lot of people are fascinated by the mechanical devices that can implant them," she said. It enters the human body and replaces the native heart. ”. In ***, museum staff blew into the ventricles (through a tube), causing the septum to contract and expand.
Selzman believes that keeping the history of heart transplantation important to the field are essential to students and provide future generations with "the impetus to innovate for our patients." "
"The history of heart transplantation and the development of mechanical support for these heart disease patients is one of the most fascinating stories in all of medicine," he admits to bias. But it contains intrigue, personality conflicts and comparisons. Pioneers of greater life, in engineering, surgery, medicine, and of course, brave patients. I challenge you to find more Spelling stories than this one recently donated. A New Heart can be seen Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. on the National Museum of American History’s Wallace H. Coulter Performance Plaza Stage, previewing “How to Mend a Broken Heart?” ” Company