Gradually-expandable stent apparatus and method

A gradually-expandable stent, comprising:

• a base ring, completely encircling a central valve-accepting area;
• a plurality of uprights, each upright including two longitudinally extending upright struts, each upright strut having a strut base directly connected to the base ring and a strut tip directly attached to the other strut tip of the upright strut at a rounded upright apex, the upright apex being longitudinally spaced from the base ring;
• at least one external ring feature, extending coaxially with the base ring and spaced laterally outside at least one upright;
• and
• at least one expansion feature associated with at least one of the external ring feature and the base ring, each expansion feature gradually expanding to enlarge the central valve-accepting area toward a maximum valve-accepting area responsive to growth of the patient over an extended dwell time;
• wherein each upright strut has a strut base integrally formed with a portion of the base ring, and the expansion feature includes a beam integrally formed with a selected upright for selectively sliding radially with respect to a cuff integrally formed with an other upright.