It will work: the first successful mitral valve replacement

In 1959, a prosthetic mitral valve of flexible polyurethane with Teflon chordae tendineae was designed and fabricated. After a series of experiments in dogs carried out at the Clinic of Surgery at the National Heart Institute, on March 11, 1960, this valve was used as a total replacement of the mitral valve of a 44-year-old woman with mitral regurgitation. After an uneventful postoperative course, she was discharged from the hospital and did well thereafter, but died suddenly, presumably of an arrhythmia, 4 months after operation.