The Making of an Artificial Heart Valve... And Meeting the People Who Hand-Made Mine

If you've ever had a new knee, hip, or maybe a stent to open clogged arteries in your heart, you probably never thought about what company made it... Let alone who made it. I know that I didn't when I had surgery three years ago to replace my aortic valve. I knew it was made […] Not rendering correctly? View this e-mail as a web page [here](. [Empire Financial Daily] The Making of an Artificial Heart Valve... And Meeting the People Who Hand-Made Mine By Herb Greenberg --------------------------------------------------------------- [Warning: Massive supply crisis ahead... ACT NOW]( Even as inflation continues to cripple investors, and the economy heads into a recession... demand for one critical element is set to soar. In fact, some countries have already begun stockpiling it to get ahead of the curve. The last time supply and demand of this key element got slightly imbalanced, savvy investors could've made 30x their money in less than 6 years. Before you buy a single share of stock to take advantage of this event, [see what's causing this massive shift right here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- If you've ever had a new knee, hip, or maybe a stent to open clogged arteries in your heart, you probably never thought about what company made it... Let alone who made it. I know that I didn't when I had surgery three years ago to replace my aortic valve. I knew it was made by Edwards Lifesciences (EW), which is the largest manufacturer of artificial biologic heart valves. That's only because I spent months if not years researching the device. Beyond that, I never gave a thought to how it was made, or even more granular, the people who actually made it. That was until last week, when I made the hour-long drive from San Diego up to the Orange County headquarters of Edwards... I was there for something the company calls the "Patient Experience." This is an annual two-day event, bringing in about 60 patients from across the country who have received all types of valves... either by open-heart surgery or by one of Edwards' transcatheter procedures. A transcatheter replacement, as its name implies, involves a valve replacement done by snaking a catheter through the groin to the heart. The procedure, pioneered by Edwards, doesn't require your heart to be stopped, which in turn means you don't need to be hooked up to a heart-lung machine. There's no question it has revolutionized the way valves are replaced, in the process revitalizing the valve industry. I wasn't a candidate for a transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR as it is more commonly called, because I needed a bigger overhaul. As a result, mine was done the old-fashioned way, with a nine-inch incision so my ribs could be pried apart. But here's the thing... It doesn't matter how the procedure is done... the valve is made pretty much the same way. And as much as I researched valves and the procedures before my surgery, I was humbled to learn what I didn't know... And by the stories of others I met whose lives in all likelihood would have been cut short if artificial valves didn't exist... - Like my new friend Dennis, who owns a large date farm just south of Palm Springs, California and flies his own plane. His heart valve had been damaged by endocarditis – an infection – and he had no choice but to have a new valve surgically implanted... - Or the woman I met at lunch who had a repair of her mitral valve via a robot, but wound up getting a rare complication in the form of a blood disease that almost killed her. She ultimately needed a full surgery to replace the valve. She looked as good as new, even though six weeks earlier she was on her deathbed... - Or the 71-year-old guy from Massachusetts who sat next to me on the bus from the hotel to Edwards. He runs a small packaging business, but his real passion is playing wind instruments. His tricuspid valve had been malfunctioning. He was having trouble putting one foot ahead of the other, let alone playing his instruments. Open-heart surgery for tricuspid valves can be dicey, with a higher mortality rate than most, but Edwards is in trials for a transcatheter (no open-heart surgery) way to replace it. This guy was the first patient in the Northeast to have the procedure, and the 20th person to go under the procedure. He said he felt like new the next day. Before long, he was back to playing his wind instruments. When I last saw him, he was on his way to the airport in Los Angeles to take a red eye back to the East Coast for a meeting the next day. What we all had in common was we all were satisfied owners of an Edwards valve, which was made either in California, Singapore, or Costa Rica. And we were all there for the same reason... to see how our valves were made, but more important, to meet (either virtually or in person) the people who physically made them. --------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Link: [Overheard at Apple's Secret Meeting...]( A thousand people attended... NO CAMERAS were allowed! One invitee said every iPhone was wrapped with "tamper-proof stickers" to prevent photographs. At the event, Apple unveiled a device that "could eventually replace mobile phones." Apple codenamed the device "N421"... But Michael Robinson calls it "iPhone Killer." To see how you could potentially profit from iPhone Killer... [Click here before April 26](. --------------------------------------------------------------- And that's the part of this entire visit that resonated the most... Artificial valves are not produced on machines. It's all a very hands-on process, with zero automation. Each valve is hand-sewn in a clean room assembly line (like the one below in Irvine) by a team of around 10 people, who pass it along in process and quality control that can take five to 15 hours. Training takes six months. Most of the sewers are from Southeast Asia... and some are second and even third generation. All of the sewing is done while looking through a powerful microscope. As we were taken through the process, I took photos... The first step is sewing together three leaflets made from the pericardium of a single cow. (In the pictures below, those hands are of a trainer who started as a sewer 30 years ago. I was matched with her to get an up-close look of how the sewing is done.) Those leaflet pieces are then sewn onto a fabric base, which is then sewn onto a fabric-covered frame and base made from alloy wire. The result is a heart valve like the one below, which is the same model as the one beating inside of me. It's tedious work... Edwards holds these events in large part as a morale booster, so employees can put a face and person to the work they do. It's also good PR. It's one thing to meet the person who worked on the world's tallest skyscraper or perhaps made your car, but it's another to meet the people who made the heart valve that's keeping you alive. The highlight, of course, was meeting the three wonderfully talented and kind women who were part of the team that sewed mine. We were matched by the serial number on my valve. Being able to look them in the eyes and personally thank them and tell them about me, my family, my grandkids... I'm not sure who was more emotional, them or me. A final thought... I had gone to the Cleveland Clinic for my surgery. After a few years of sending my data there for a second opinion, the doctors suggested I fly out for an in-person evaluation. I did just that in February 2020 and met with Dr. Lars Svensson – the chairman of the clinic's Heart and Lung Institute... and a surgeon's surgeon. He told me I needed surgery. I wondered if it could wait until August, after my first grandchild was born. Dr. Svensson looked me in the eyes and said, calmly but sternly, "I would do it now." I was back in a month, just before the pandemic hit. I now have two grandkids, and as corny as it may sound and in large part based on my personal experience, I'm a sucker for medical technology... and all it can do. It's all about improving quality of life, but also living longer. The very concept of how somebody conjured up the idea of an artificial heart valve remains a marvel, but so is the fact that I have an artificial valve, an artificial aortic root, and a Dacron repair of my ascending aorta... none of which I would even think about if I didn't have the faded scar as souvenir. From a stock perspective, the hope and hype MedTech and all things tied to longevity have spawned a share of unrealistic ideas and even frauds, but they also spawned some enormous winners... like Edwards, which over the past 10 and 20 years has outperformed not only the broader market but the iShares U.S. Medical Devices Fund (IHI) – and not by a small amount. The trick is weeding out the losers. No surprise... I plan on spending more time on all things longevity. After all, the older you get, the more personal it becomes. Stay tuned... And as always, feel free to reach out via e-mail by [clicking here](mailto:feedback@empirefinancialresearch.com?subject=Feedback%20for%20Herb). I look forward to hearing from you. Regards, Herb Greenberg April 5, 2023 [Get a 60-day, 100% money-back trial to Empire Real Wealth by clicking here.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- If someone forwarded you this e-mail and you would like to be added to the Empire Financial Daily e-mail list to receive e-mails like this every weekday, simply [sign up here](. © 2023 Empire Financial Research. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution, in whole or in part, is prohibited without written permission from Empire Financial Research, 1125 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201 [www.empirefinancialresearch.com.]( You received this e-mail because you are subscribed to Empire Financial Daily. [Unsubscribe from all future e-mails](