| William DeVries | |
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Dr. William DeVries, circa 2002.
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| Born | December 19, 1943 Brooklyn Navy Yard |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | cardiothoracic surgeon |
| Known for | Dr. William DeVries and his surgical replaced a diseased heart with the Jarvik-7, the first permanent artificial heart ever used for a human patient. |
William C. DeVries (born December 19, 1943) is an American cardiothoracic surgeon, who performed the first successful permanent artificial heart implantation (on Barney Clark), using the Jarvik-7 model.
DeVries was the son of a Dutch immigrant father who served as a surgeon in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was born at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. His father, Henry DeVries, died in combat on the destroyer USS Kalk in 1944 during the Battle of Hollandia.[1] DeVries became an Eagle Scout[2] in his youth and a brother of the Sigma Chi Fraternity in college.
Dr. William DeVries and his surgical team at the University of Utah Medical Center made medical history and national headlines on 2 December 1982, when they replaced a diseased heart with the Jarvik-7, the first permanent artificial heart ever used for a human patient. DeVries was on the cover of Time magazine on December 10, 1984. He obtained his Bachelor's and MD degrees from the University of Utah, and then took an internship and became a resident at Duke University Medical Center.[3]
On December 29, 2000, he joined the United States Army Reserve as a lieutenant colonel, becoming at age 57 one of the oldest people to enter and complete the Officer Basic Course. After completion of that course, he was stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. teaching surgical residents there and medical students from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the George Washington University School of Medicine.