On 1 December 1982, surgeon William DeVries implanted the Jarvik-7 artificial heart into Barney Clark at the University of Utah. Clark survived for 112 days, tethered to a large external console, while the world watched the promise and suffering of mechanical life support. The case raised enduring questions about experimental medicine, dignity, consent, and the boundary between body and machine.

The artificial heart fed a late twentieth-century literary fascination with cyborg bodies and technological survival. It gave poets and writers a stark image for modern alienation: the ancient symbol of emotion replaced by a machine, beating on between hope, pain, and publicity.