William DeVries: Recent Episodes

Dr. William C. DeVries is an American cardiothoracic surgeon who performed the first successful permanent artificial heart implantation on December 2, 1982. DeVries was the son of a Dutch immigrant father who served as a surgeon in the U.S. Navy during World War II. William DeVries was born at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. His father died in combat in 1944 during the Battle of Hollandia in the South Pacific. DeVries was an Eagle Scout in his youth and went on to earn his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Utah. Dr. DeVries and his surgical team at the Utah Medical Center University made medical history when they replaced a diseased heart of Barney Clark with the Jarvik-7, the first permanent artificial heart ever used for a human patient. DeVries earned global headlines and landed on the cover of Time magazine as “the surgeon who touches the soul with a new machine.” The landmark heart surgery was done after years of research and preparation in the laboratory of Dr. Willem J. Kolff at the University of Utah. DeVries implanted 200 of Robert Jarvik’s pumps in calves and sheep, while practicing the operation on 20 human cadavers.