 On July 3, 1952, 41-year-old Henry Opitek suffering from shortness of breath made medical history at Harper University Hospital at Wayne State University in Michigan.The Dodrill-GMR heart, considered to be the first operational mechanical heart, was invented by Dr. Forest Dewey Dodrill and successfully inserted into Henry Opitek while performing open heart surgery.In 1981, Dr. Robert Jarvik implanted the world's first permanent artificial heart, the Jarvik 7, into Dr. Barney Clark.