This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(February 2010) |
Earl Elmer Bakken(January 10, 1924 – October 21, 2018) was an American engineer, inventor, businessman and philanthropist of Dutch andNorwegian Americanancestry. He foundedMedtronic,where he developed the first external, battery-operated, transistorized, wearableartificial pacemakerin 1957.[1][2]
Earl Bakken | |
|---|---|
 Bakken in 2007 | |
| Born | January 10, 1924 Columbia Heights, Minnesota,United States |
| Died | October 21, 2018(aged 94) Kona District, Hawaii,United States |
| Education | BSEE and MSEE from theUniversity of Minnesota |
| Known for | foundingMedtronic,inventing the wearable portablepacemaker,foundingBakken Museum |
| Engineering career | |
Early life and education
editBakken was born on January 10, 1924, inColumbia Heights, Minnesotaand was of Norwegian ancestry. Bakken had a long-held fascination with electricity and electronics. A self-described "nerd",Bakken designed a rudimentaryelectroshock weaponin school to fend off bullies. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1948 from the University of Minnesota. His electrical engineering education continued, and he obtained a Master's degree with a minor in mathematics, also from the University of Minnesota.[1]
As a boy, Bakken was inspired by the combination of electricity with medicine inMary Shelley's novelFrankenstein,and the subsequent1931 film versionstarringBoris Karloffwas a direct inspiration for his future work, including his improvements to thepacemaker(the first to be battery-powered and wearable) and foundingMedtronic.Bakken later founded a museum about medical science and electricity in Minneapolis,The Bakken,which features an extensiveFrankensteindisplay.[3]
Career
editPost-World War II hospitals were just starting to employ electronic equipment, but did not have staff to maintain and repair them. Sensing an opportunity, with his brother-in-law,Palmer Hermundslie,he formed Medtronic (a portmanteau of "medical" and "electronic" ) in a small garage, primarily working with the University of Minnesota hospital.
In the 1950s, Dr.C. Walton Lilleheiwas performing life-saving surgery on children withblue 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 ametronomeinPopular 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. (TheFood and Drug Administrationdid not start regulatingmedical devicesuntil 1976.)[4]
Over the next several years, Bakken and Medtronic worked with other doctors to develop fully implantable pacemakers, but they also veered toward bankruptcy. He borrowed money that kept Medtronic going, but the bankruptcy near-miss drove Bakken to develop theMedtronic Mission,which still guides the company.[5]The mission helped the young company to stay focused on areas where it could truly help patients.
Bakken retired fromMedtronicin 1989 and moved to a 9-acre estate in theKona DistrictofHawaiihe calledBakken Hale,[6]but still returned to the company several times a year to meet new employees and explain theMedtronic Missionto them in person.
In 1996 he helped to dedicate the North Hawaii Community Hospital and was active there for some time afterward, working to combine Eastern and Western approaches to medicine to develop a moreholisticapproach to health care.[7]
In 2001, Medtronic started the construction of its new Europeandistribution centerinHeerlen,The Netherlands. The street on which the facility was built is named after Bakken.
Bakken died at his Hawaii home on October 21, 2018, at the age of 94.[8]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^abSpencer, William H. (2001). Hurst, J. Willis; Fye, W. Bruce (eds.)."Earl E. Bakken".Clinical Cardiology.24(5): 422–423.doi:10.1002/clc.4960240515.ISSN1932-8737.PMC6655043.
- ^Hebrew University of JerusalemInstitute of Chemistry:Earl E. BakkenArchived2007-12-05 at theWayback Machine
- ^Rana, D. (2021).A Frayed New World: From Science Fiction to Society.Notion Press. p. 12.ISBN978-1-68554-027-2.Retrieved2023-06-02.
- ^Paul A. Iaizzo (13 November 2015).Handbook of Cardiac Anatomy, Physiology, and Devices.Springer. pp. 449–.ISBN978-3-319-19464-6.
- ^Medtronic's Patient-Focussed Missionmedtronic.com
- ^Mykleseth, Kathryn (2015-01-07)."Supersize solar setup underway on Big Isle".Honolulu Star Advertiser.Oahu Publications d.b.a. Staradvertiser.com.Retrieved21 June2016.
- ^"Ability Magazine: Earl Bakken Interview with Chet Cooper "(2009) ".Retrieved2012-04-03.
- ^Medtronic founder Earl Bakken Has Died at His Home In Hawaii