Monday, Aug. 13, 1984
New Beat
Utah loses a famed surgeon
Hearts at the University of Utah surely skipped a beat last week when Dr. William DeVries, 40, the pioneer surgeon who in 1982 implanted an artificial heart in retired Dentist Barney Clark, made a surprise announcement: he is resigning from the Salt Lake City medical center to join Humana Heart Institute International in Louisville. The institute is owned by Humana Inc., which operates a chain of 90 hospitals in the U.S. and three foreign countries.
DeVries had grown frustrated by the nine-month delay in getting a go-ahead from the Utah medical center for a second implant. Said DeVries: "I'm tired of having patients die while trying to cut through red tape." He expects the ethical-review process to be speedier in Kentucky, but there will still be some red tape to get through. The Utah unit was the only one in the country with authorization from the Food and Drug Administration to perform artificial-heart surgery. Now the Humana institute must obtain the same approval.
DeVries noted last week that the one-year-old Humana facility "has more equipment and more people than I did at Utah." Nor will he face the lack of money that he did at the largely publicly funded center in Salt Lake City. DeVries had to buttonhole benefactors personally to help cover Clark's hospital expenses of more than $250,000. Humana has pledged to underwrite the surgical costs of up to 100 artificial-heart implants. DeVries' own income will depend on his private practice. As is standard in experimental surgery, his services for the implant operations will be donated.