Artificial Heart Inventions Timeline

Development of Artificial Kidney and Heart

• In the 1930s, Dr. Willem Kolff, a young Dutch physician, worked in a small ward at the University of Groningen Hospital in the Netherlands.
• Kolff witnessed a young man's death from kidney failure, which motivated him to create a machine that could replace kidney function.
• During World War II, Kolff was sent to a remote Dutch hospital, where he used available materials like sausage skins, orange juice cans, and a washing machine to create a device that could clear blood of toxins.
• In 1943, Kolff completed his invention, a crude dialyzer that could perform hemodialysis.
• Between 1943 and 1945, Kolff treated 16 patients with acute kidney failure, but with little success.
• In 1945, a 67-year-old woman in uremic coma regained consciousness after 11 hours of hemodialysis with Kolff's dialyzer and lived for seven more years before dying of another ailment.
• Dr. Willem Kolff is considered the father of dialysis.

Development of Artificial Heart

• In 1937, Soviet scientist Vladimir Demikhov implanted an artificial heart into a dog.
• In the 1950s, the first artificial heart for humans was invented and patented.
• In 1982, the Jarvik-7, a working artificial heart, was successfully implanted in a human patient.
• American Paul Winchell, a ventriloquist and comedian, invented the first patented artificial heart in the 1950s, but it was never used.
• Henry Heimlich, who developed the eponymous emergency choking treatment, assisted Winchell in his endeavor.
• The Liotta-Cooley artificial heart was implanted into a patient in 1969 as a temporary measure, but the patient died soon after.