Clark, Una Loy Clark

Dr. Barney Bailey Clark was an extremely courageous person who underwent an unprecedented procedure. That act of determination thrust him into the scientific spotlight, and into the hearts of millions of people around the world. For 112 days, he survived on an artificial heart developed by Dr. Willem Kolff. His own heart had been deteriorating for years due to a disease known as idiopathic cardiomyopathy. And even though the procedure was not a complete success (because he never made it home from the hospital), his bravery and suffering provided the medical community with valuable scientific information.

Barney Bailey Clark was born in Provo, Utah, on 21 January 1921 to Moroni Jensen Clark and Ethel Bailey Clark. He was their only child. His father was a traveling salesman for Calumet Baking Powder; so, he lived with his grandmother until her death in 1926. After that he traveled with his parents for a while, but moved back to Provo with his mother when school started. Barney graduated from high school and joined the National Guard. Then in March of 1941, the National Guard was federalized to become part of the regular United States Army. He helped to run the first aid station with the medics, and about a year later he put in to be a pilot in the Air Corps. But when he was unable to become a pilot, he joined the bombardier training course where he excelled.

The war ended in 1945, and Barney's last mission was actually executed after the war had ended. This was due to the orders of radio silence. They just hadn't know about the truce until it was too late. But at least, Barney could now go home to his family.

Barney graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in pre-med. Afterward, he tried to get into the Medical School at the University of Utah, but he was turned down. It was then that his best friend, Wes Brown, convinced him to move to Seattle, and go to school to become a dentist. After he graduated, he went to work in the office of Homer Lockett until he could afford to open his own office.

In June of 1954 he was informed by his physician that he had contracted a case of hepatitis. Unknown to him, this was to be the first in a long line of illnesses that would plague is life from time to time. Due to his smoking habit, he eventually contracted emphysema (May 1978); and then there was the idiopathic cardiomyopathy which deteriorated the muscle in his heart.

In 1980, Dr. Clark was referred to Dr. Jeffery Anderson for treatment. Dr. Anderson tried to manage his condition medically. The treatment included administration of digoxin, furosemide with potassium supplementation, warfarin, captopril, prednisone, azathioprine, and a trial of the investigational new inotropic drug amrinone. Unfortunately, all of these drugs proved unsuccessful in preventing further cardiac decomposition.

Dr. Clark was first introduced to the artificial heart in 1982 when he went to visit the animal research barn, and he went home to Seattle to decide on the surgery with his family. But Una Loy knew right from the start that he was going to do it. Although he did want to help advance the medical research, what he really wanted was a much better quality of life than he had been experiencing the last few years. He truly believed that this artificial heart would give that to him; and it probably would have, if he hadn't been suffering from so many other problems. He was admitted to the University of Utah Medical Center for the transplant at the end of November in 1982. He signed the consent form, required by the Institutional Review Board (twice), and then due to complications, he went into surgery earlier than expected.

Even though the operation was successful, they had a lot of problems at the start. First, he developed an air leak in his lung that had to be corrected surgically. Then, he suffered from seizures of an undetermined nature. Next, there was also a broken valve on the left ventricle of the artificial heart that had to be repaired. And finally, due to the necessary anticoagulant, he suffered from terrible nose bleeds which also had to be fixed surgically.

Even though preparations were made for him to go home at the end of April, he never made it. He suffered from aspiration pneumonia in early March which sent him back into the ICU, and he never left it again.

On March 21st, Dr. Clark suffered from reduced renal function that induced a high fever. And on March 23rd, he suffered from multiple organ system failure that caused a circulatory collapse which killed him at 10:02 that night. It wasn't the artificial heart that killed him, it was everything else that was going wrong with him at that time.

From the guide to the Barney B. Clark papers, 1910-1984, (J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah)