Our History

Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE: EW) traces its roots back to 1958, when Miles “Lowell” Edwards set out to build the first artificial heart. Edwards was a 60-year-old recently retired engineer with 63 patents in an array of industries, an entrepreneurial spirit and dreams of helping patients with heart disease. His fascination with healing the heart started in his teens, when he suffered through two bouts of rheumatic fever. This rare but potentially life-threatening disease can damage the heart by scarring its valves and eventually can cause the organ to fail.

With a background in hydraulics and fuel pump operations, Edwards believed the human heart could be mechanized. But, when he presented the concept to Dr. Albert Starr, a young surgeon at the University of Oregon Medical School, the idea was met with hesitation. Instead, Starr encouraged Edwards to focus first on developing an artificial heart valve, for which there was an immediate need. After only two years, the first Starr-Edwards mitral valve was designed, developed, tested and successfully placed in a patient.

The first valve implant was performed on September 21, 1960, at the University of Oregon Medical School. The patient, a 52-year-old farmer named Philip Amundson, had a scarred and deformed heart valve as a result of childhood rheumatic fever. The procedure went well and newspapers throughout the world reported the success of the “miraculous” heart surgery. Amundson enjoyed a healthy and productive life until his death from an unrelated cause a decade later.

Less than 12 months after introducing the world’s first commercially available replacement mitral heart valve, Edwards and Starr introduced the first mechanical aortic replacement valve.

These innovations spawned a company, Edwards Laboratories, which set up shop in Santa Ana, Calif. -- not far from where Edwards Lifesciences is headquartered today.

In 1966, Edwards Laboratories was purchased by American Hospital Supply Corp. and became American Edwards Laboratories. Then, in 1985, American Edwards was acquired by Baxter International Inc. In early 2000, the company was spun off as the independent, publicly-held corporation named Edwards Lifesciences and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “EW.”

Throughout its long history, the company has continued its legacy of heart valve innovation. Today, the company’s line of tissue heart valves, provided under the Carpentier-Edwards brand name, have become the choice of surgeons worldwide due to their durability, performance and positive quality-of-life benefits for patients, making Edwards Lifesciences the world’s number-one heart valve company.

From its success in replacement valve therapies, Edwards Lifesciences applied this experience to developing products for heart valve repair. Today, the company is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of products for the surgical repair procedure –called annuloplasty – and its Carpentier-Edwards and Cosgrove-Edwards annuloplasty products are among the most sought-after by surgeons around the globe.

In addition to its heart valve therapies, the Edwards organization is credited with pioneering many other medical innovations, including the Swan-Ganz catheter, the first technology ever used for hemodynamic monitoring of critically ill patients, and the Fogarty line of embolectomy catheters, the first catheter-based technologies used to remove blood clots from the arms and legs.

Prior to his death in 1982, Lowell Edwards was only the sixth person in history to receive the American Medical Association’s Layman’s Citation for Distinguished Service. The citation describes Edwards as “a man of honor and courage whose inventive genius brought about the development of the artificial heart valve and whose long devotion to human welfare in the science of medicine has given new life and hope to victims of heart disease throughout the world.”

More than 50 years later, the original vision of Lowell Edwards continues today. Edwards Lifesciences is a global company with annual revenues exceeding $1 billion and more than 6,300 employees strong, all dedicated to furthering Lowell Edwards’ original vision to help clinicians, patients and their families work together as a united community fighting cardiovascular disease.