Early designs of total artificial hearts
In 1967, Dr. Kolff left Cleveland Clinic to start the Division of Artificial Organs at the University of Utah and pursue his work on the artificial heart.
- In 1973, a calf named Tony survived for 30 days on an early Kolff heart.
- In 1975, a bull named Burk survived 90 days on the artificial heart.
- In 1976, a calf named Abebe lived for 184 days on the Jarvik 5 artificial heart.
- In 1981, a calf named Alfred Lord Tennyson lived for 268 days on the Jarvik 5.
Recent developments
Total artificial heart
In June 1996, a 46-year-old Chinese American Mr. Yao ST received the
world's first total artificial heart implantation done by Dr. Jeng Wei at Cheng-Hsin General Hospital in
Taiwan. This pneumatic Phoenix-7 Total Artificial Heart was manufactured by a dentist Kelvin K Cheng and his colleagues at the Taiwan TAH Research Center in Tainan,
Taiwan.
With this experimental artificial heart, the patient's BP was
maintained at 90-100/40-55 mmHg and cardiac output at 4.2-5.8 L/min.
After 15 days of bridging, Mr. Yao received combined heart and kidney
transplantation. As of September 2011, he is still very well and is currently living in San Francisco.
