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Jarvik, D., who has owned a home in Stamford, turns 70 on Wednesday. The scientist, researcher and entrepreneur was born May 11, 1946, in Midland, Mich.
He joined University of Utah's artificial organs program in 1971, then headed by Willem Johan Kolff, his mentor. He was assigned to design a new heart that would overcome the problems of the Kwan-Gett heart, eventually culminating with the Jarvik-7 device
His name came to the forefront during the 1982 news coverage of the artificial heart implant. William DeVries first implanted the Jarvik-7 into retired dentist Barney Clark at the University of Utah on Dec. 2, 1982. The next several implantations of the Jarvik-7 heart were conducted by Humana, a large health care insurance company.
Later, he formed Symbion Inc. to manufacture the heart and then founded JARVIK Heart Inc. and began work to create the Jarvik 2000, a lifetime ventricular assist device.
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