The Nation - News from Dec. 19, 1985

Surgeons for the first time began implanting an artificial heart in a woman, using a version of the Jarvik-7 that is 30% smaller than the plastic and metal pump used in men, a spokesman said at Abbott-Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. The gravely ill 40-year-old Minnesota woman was being given the artificial heart to keep her alive until a human donor heart can be found. If the implant is successful, the woman, who was not identified, would become the first person to receive the smaller Jarvik-7, which can fit into the chest of a patient weighing less than 150 pounds. Seven men have been recipients of the Jarvik-7.