Oregon Experience

For decades, Oregon required counties to care for their indigent residents. Government-funded poor farms provided food, shelter, and medical services throughout the state. They became a refuge for the elderly, people with disabilities, or anyone unable to care for themselves. However, the care varied widely. Some provided residents with a home, while others operated more like prisons.

In 1958 retired engineer, M. Lowell Edwards, approached cardiac surgeon, Dr. Albert Starr, with an idea to build an artificial heart. Agreeing to tackle the project one heart valve at a time, Starr and Edwards embarked on an unexpected collaboration that would result in a revolutionary breakthrough in cardiac surgery -- the invention of the world’s first successful artificial mitral heart valve.