Swede Gets Artificial Heart --1st Implant Outside U.S.

STOCKHOLM — Doctors announced today that they implanted a U.S.-made artificial heart into the chest of a middle-aged Swedish man three days ago--the first patient outside the United States to receive an artificial heart pump.

The patient, a man in his 50s who was not identified, became the fourth person in the world to receive the Jarvik-7 heart pump, developed in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Dr. William DeVries, who conducted the first three implants, was consulted on Monday by the Scandinavian doctor who performed the latest implant and today sent his congratulations.

William J. Schroeder, 53, of Jasper, Ind., and Murray P. Haydon, 58, of Louisville, Ky., received Jarvik-7 hearts Nov. 25, 1984, and last Feb. 17, respectively, and are recovering at medical facilities in Kentucky. The first implant patient, Dr. Barney Clark, received his Jarvik-7 on Dec. 2, 1982, and died 112 days later.

The Swedish patient received the plastic, air-driven heart Sunday at Sweden’s Karolinska Hospital. He was reported awake and in satisfactory condition today.

Hospital officials said the patient’s original heart had been weakened by a series of cardiac arrests. An examination showed he was not fit for a heart transplant and it was decided to implant an artificial heart, they said.

The operation was performed by a dozen doctors, led by Dr. Bjarne H. Semb, a 45-year-old Norwegian heart surgeon who belonged to the pioneering group of doctors who carried out the world’s first heart transplant in South Africa in the late 1960s.