Donald Shiley

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Donald Shiley is one of the co-inventors of Pfizer's Bjork-Shiley heart valve. He is a 1957 alumnus of the University of Portland, where he studied engineering.

Shiley began working at Edwards Laboratories, located in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, the first manufacturer of artificial heart-valves.

Later he established his own company, Shiley Laboratories, in the same area. His first valve was developed together with the American heart-surgeon Kay, and became the first disc heart-valve. Compared with the Edwards valve, which had the shape of a little ball, the advantage of the disc valve was to need much less space within the heart once implanted.

Some years later, Shiley improved his design in cooperation with the Swedish heart-surgeon Viking Björk, which led to the first tilting disc heart-valve, resulting in a much better flow of blood when passing the valve.

Other products were added to the manufacturing programm of Shiley, especially tracheal and endotracheal tubes for respiration after surgery in the mouth or throat, and during anesthesia.

The Björk-Shiley heart-valve underwent in the following years several improvements, which consisted primarily in the degree of opening of the disc, thus reducing turbulence in the blood stream.

Shiley lost his wife, Pat, when she was middle-aged. She, having been a very active woman, had helped Shiley to stay enthusiastic about his work and his company, and was a great loss to him. Some years later, Shiley decided to sell his company to Pfizer, and retired.

On March 19th, 2007, the University of Portland announced a $12 million grant from Shiley and his wife. The grant was for renovating the University's School of Engineering. The grant is the largest the University has ever received. ^[1]