The quest to develop an artificial human heart must have seemed dazzlingly close in the 1950s, as doctors already knew pricesely the organ’s mechanics and function. A heart-and-lung machine was already proven successful in taking over the functions of both organs for a short while, during surgery. And a small-scale mechanical replica of a heart was developed, but never used, since it could not be built out of any material the body could accept. Still, those last few challenges on the way to a successful artificial human heart proved quite difficult to overcome, and it took three more decades until the procedure was perfected.

On this day, February 19, in 1985, the first patient with the model Jarvik-7 model of the artificial heart was released from the hospital.

The Jarvik-7 heart implanted in Schroeder was the pinnacle of technology at the time. Made from composite materials designed to grow into the surrounding blood vessels, and with air-powered ventricles operating much like a natural heart would, it was designed in every way to integrate into the body. Still, it could not have been easy for Schroeder: the Jarvik heart required an external operating system about the size of a refrigerator, which included the heart’s battery charger and beat speed regulator.