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Twin Cities Heart and Lung

Total Artificial Heart

Mary Lund

In 1985, Minnesotan Mary Lund became the first woman in the world to receive a total artificial heart, with Twin Cities Heart and Lung surgeon Dr. Joyce as the operating surgeon. The device was a smaller version of the Jarvik-7 pump used on Barney Clark, the first man to receive an artificial heart, in 1982.
Mary Lund was a 40-year-old secretary at a nursing home in Alexandria, Minnesota. She was in good health until an unknown virus attacked her heart and left her in critical condition a few days after she showed cold-like symptoms. The decision to implant the artificial heart came when the surgeons realized that Mary would probably not live through the night. Mary was supported by the artificial heart for an additional forty-five days, when she then received a heart transplant. Lund died of multiple organ failure on October 14, 1986, almost a year after the artificial heart was implanted.
Dr. Joyce was also the first surgeon to implant an artificial heart in a child, in 1987.

 
artificial heart
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