Viking Björk

Viking Olov Björk (3 December 1918, Sunnansjö, Dalarna – 18 February 2009) was a Swedish cardiac surgeon.

In 1968, he collaborated with American engineer Donald Shiley to develop the first "tilting disc valve" used to replace the aortic or mitral valve. Many modifications followed including the convexo-concave valv.The convexo-concave valve had defects in form of strut fractures. Therefore the monosatrut valve was introduced to prevent outflow strut fractures.[1]

The Bjork–Shiley heart valve was manufactured by Pfizer after they bought the Shiley company in 1979. In 1980 Björk wrote to Pfizer threatening to publish cases of valve failures — often fatal to the patients — unless corrective action was taken. This eventually led to long lawsuit that involved the recall of all existing valves and Pfizer allocating up to US$20 million to pay compensation.

Björk died on 18 February 2009.[2][3]

References

  1. ↑ H, Ahn; Kim KH; Kim DJ; Jeong DS (2007-12-22). "Long-term experience with the Bjork–Shiley Monostrut tilting disc valve". J. Korean Med. Sci. 22 (6): 1060–4. PMC 2694640 Freely accessible. PMID 18162723. doi:10.3346/jkms.2007.22.6.1060.
  2. ↑ Obituary in Svenska Dagbladet, 22 February 2009
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 8, 2010. Retrieved March 12, 2010.
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