Former Factory Worker, 58, Will Get 3rd Artificial Heart : Louisville Man’s Implant Surgery Set for Sunday

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —  A 58-year-old Louisville man suffering from chronic heart failure will receive the world’s third permanent artificial heart Sunday, Humana Hospital Audubon announced today.

Dr. William C. DeVries, who performed the first two implants, will implant the plastic and metal Jarvik-7 heart in Murray P. Haydon, who will join William J. Schroeder as the hospital’s artificial heart patients.

“Haydon has chronic congestive heart failure of an unknown cause,” the hospital said in a statement. “He has suffered from heart disease since 1981 and has been treated with medications, which are now ineffective.”

First Implant in ’82

DeVries performed the first implant in 1982 on Dr. Barney Clark, a Seattle-area dentist who survived 112 days, and the second last Nov. 25 on Schroeder, who is in satisfactory condition at Audubon but has never left the hospital. Schroeder celebrated his 53rd birthday at the hospital Thursday.

Hospital officials did not say how bad Haydon’s condition is but said he was selected because “there is no surgical treatment for this type of end-stage heart disease.”

DeVries and his colleagues at Audubon’s Humana Heart Institute interviewed Haydon about a possible implant before his admission on Wednesday.

“He has since undergone additional testing and was approved by the hospital’s evaluation committee” Thursday, DeVries said.

Assembly Line Worker

Haydon is a retired assembly line worker from the Ford Motor Co. truck plant in Louisville and previously worked as a barber.

Hospital spokesman Robert Irvine described Haydon as “a little more reserved than Bill,” who captured the world’s fancy by demanding a beer after his implant and by complaining to President Reagan about delays in his Social Security benefits.

Irvine said he was uncertain whether Haydon--a tall man with receding white hair who wears silver-rimmed glasses--had met Schroeder. He indicated that a meeting was possible before the implant if Schroeder felt up to it.

Haydon is a Louisville native who grew up in the Horse Cave area of south-central Kentucky near Mammoth Cave National Park. He has been married 32 years and has three adult-age children and four grandchildren.

Similarities With Schroeder

Irvine said he was most struck by the similarities in the long Haydon and Schroeder marriages.

Schroeder, a Jasper, Ind., resident who has been married 33 years, is also a grandfather and the common family background with Haydon reflects a key guideline for selecting a mechanical heart patient--a stable personal life and family support.

According to Irvine, Haydon is a devoted husband who had said, “I just can’t tell you how much it means to have a wife” like his, Juanita.

Like Schroeder, Haydon has spent some time in military service--seven years in the Army and Air Force, including combat service in Germany during World War II.

Family Hopeful

Haydon’s family “is very concerned but I think they are looking forward to the operation from the standpoint of relieving the condition he has had. He’s very sick,” Irvine said.

Doris Thompson, a neighbor of Haydon’s in the comfortable St. Matthews suburb of Louisville, told UPI that Haydon has been physically limited since he was forced to retire in 1983.

“We’d see him sitting out in the yard a lot,” she said. “That’s about all he can do. The Haydons are very, very nice people.”

Humana Inc., the for-profit firm that runs Audubon and more than 90 other hospitals nationwide, has pledged to finance up to 100 implants and promised to share any medical knowledge gained from them.