January 10, 1924 – October 21, 2018

I had an uncle who was an electrician, and he kept telling my mother, ‘you’ve got to stop that child from playing with that electricity, he’s going to kill himself.

– Earl Bakken

In the 1950s, Dr. C. Walton Lillehei was performing life-saving surgery on children with blue baby syndrome. That surgery often left the children needing to be temporarily attached to a pacemaker. The pacemakers at the time were large devices that required their own carts and relied on wall current for power. As a result of a power blackout on October 31, 1957, one of Dr. Lillehei’s young patients died. Dr. Lillehei, who had worked with Bakken before, asked him the next day if he could solve the problem. Four weeks after finding a circuit diagram for a metronome in Popular Electronics, Bakken delivered a battery-powered transistorized pacemaker about the size of a few decks of cards to Dr. Lillehei. After successfully testing the hand-made device in the laboratory, Bakken returned to create a refined model for patients. However, much to his astonishment, when he came in the next day, he found the pacemaker already in use on a patient. (The Food and Drug Administration did not start regulating medical devices until 1976.)

– Source Wikipedia

Photo courtesy of  Bobak Ha’Eri & Paul Schmokel [CC BY 3.0 ], from Wikimedia Commons

On a winter day in 2013 during my daily walk with friends I was feeling dizzy and having problems walking up a hill.  It was snowing but I decided to see the doctor who told me to visit a cardiologist. By the time I got to an operating room I was missing half my heartbeats. The problem was electrical, a heart block, a delay of the triggering pulse.

I had a Medtronic C2RR01 implanted on January 25, 2013, just several days after Earl’s birthday.  After the surgery the change was dramatic and I was grateful that the technology existed. I go for yearly tune ups and upload log files several times a year but the device is keeping me going on battery power. I’m not allowed to climb radio towers, use electric arc welders or get an MRI but everything else is okay.

When I learned of Earl’s passing I was struck at how much one individual can improve the lives of so many.  God bless you Earl Bakken.

To contribute to human welfare by application of biomedical engineering in the research, design, manufacture, and sale of instruments or appliances that alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life.

First tenet of the Medtronic Mission Statement written by Earl Bakken