Viking Björk

Who was Viking Björk?

Viking Olov Björk was a Swedish cardiac surgeon.

In 1968, he collaborated with American engineer Donald Shiley to develop the first "monostrut tilting disc valve" used to replace the aortic or mitral valve.

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.