Fifty-one Years and Counting - Remembering you Mr Admunson, 21 September, 1960

[Mentu]

I can't believe I forgot to post this reminder yesterday. My only excuse is that I was busy and didn't think about it until this morning. For those of you who are interested, here is a link to what is still one of the best articles available about the history of valve replacement. It includes mention of the first people to receive artificial valves, especially, Mr Admunson who was the first to live after his valve replacement with one of those first Starr-Edwards valves.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC325574/pdf/thij00023-0065.pdf

If you who feel that 1960 was a very long time ago, you might keep in mind that Dr Albert Star, to whom we are all indebted, is still alive and working although his co-inventor, Mr Lowell Edwards died in 1982. A lot has changed since 1960 but not the benefits that so many of us continue to experience from a surgery that now is considered "routine".

Thank you, Dr Starr; we will keep you and Mr Admunson in our thoughts.


Dr. Albert Starr, 2010


Larry
Tulsa, OK

 

[nngbwh]

I think he definitely deserves to be in the Guiness Book of World Records.

 

[ElectLive]

Great post Larry, thanks for sharing. We are all indebted indeed, and I'll throw in Dr. DeBakey (Dacron grafts / heart-lung mechanism) as another "legend" we should remember too.

 

[dick0236]

It includes mention of the first people to receive artificial valves, especially, Mr Admunson who was the first to live after his valve replacement with one of those first Starr-Edwards valves.
LarryTulsa, OK

I've always found it interesting that Mr. Admunson lived twelve years with his valve and died only because he fell off a ladder while doing repairs to his roof. Another interesting tidbit is that this "ball-in-cage" valve continued to be produduced until 2007.

My valve is one of these, but we don't know for sure exactly which one. Back then they did not put serial numbers on the valves and Edwards Lifesciences is unable to tell me, for sure, which valve I have.......but one thing is for sure...like the Timex watch, my valve has taken a lickin' but keeps on tickin':thumbup:.

 

[Duffey]

I have often wondered what my life would have been like if I had needed valve replacement in 1960, when I was 8 years old, rather than in 2005. I only have admiration for those early valve recipients and for the doctors who were pioneers in the field.
Thanks for the reminder.

 

[enkaynj]

Great History ! without these pioneers, we might be all dead and gone !! We definitely owe our lives to them.

 

[Protimenow]

Very interesting article. Thanks for posting the link.

 

[RCB]

My valve is one of these, but we don't know for sure exactly which one. Back then they did not put serial numbers on the valves and Edwards Lifesciences is unable to tell me, for sure, which valve I have.......but one thing is for sure...like the Timex watch, my valve has taken a lickin' but keeps on tickin':thumbup:.

Actually Dick, your S-E valve is not one of the kind that Admundson had and that difference probably why you are doing so well today. The first valves to be implanted were really prototype valves that were rushed in to production because the need for them was a matter of life and death. One of the design flaws was the material specifications for the ball was wrong and incorrectly manufactured which cause an uptake of moisture from blood. This caused swelling and malformation of the ball- something you don’t want in an enclosed cage! The specifications were changed and implemented in 1965- there was no leftover inventory because they were implanted as fast as they could be made. Since your surgery was in ’67- you got the new improved model for sure.:thumbup:

Unfortunately, I wasn’t so lucky. I got one of the early prototypes in my second surgery which was in February of ’64. It was explanted in ’82 because of a bad crack in the ball just as had been predicted in the early ‘60s.

See Dick, another example of how lucky you are!



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