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- Medical technology pioneer and philanthropist. Earl Bakken parlayed a childhood fascination with electronics and invention into the development and manufacturing of medical devices that contributed to the length and quality of people's lives. After serving as an airborne radar instructor during World War II (rank of staff sergeant, Army Air Forces signal corps), he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota. While studying electrical engineering with a minor in the university's graduate school, he worked part-time repairing laboratory equipment for Northwesterrn Hospital in Minneapolis. Increasing demand for his services led to the formation by Bakken and brother-in-law and business partner Palmer J. Hermundslie of Medtronic in April 1949. A request in 1957 by a staff surgeon for a heart pacemaker not dependent on electrical current led Bakken to adapt a circuit described in a magazine in order to create an external, wearable, battery-powered pacemaker. This compact device replaced the larger pacemakers powered by alternating current that were available at the time and Bakken took it from idea through prototype and testing to completion in a four-week span. The impetus for a battery-powered device was the death of a child dependent on an electrical-powered unit during a power blackout. In 1960, Bakken and Hermundslie struck a licensing agreement with the inventors of an implantable pacemaker, and became solely responsible for manufacturing and marketing the device, which spurred the growth of Medtronic. Over the decades, the company expanded into other aspects of medicine, including treatment of diabetes, brain surgery and spine therapy, as well as catheters, coronary stents and heart valves. Bakken retired as chairman in 1989. Bakken's other major life focus was philanthropy. In 1975, he founded The Bakken Museum, which is a nonprofit library, museum and educational center encompassing the history of electricity and magnetism, and their uses in science and medicine. In the 1990s, he moved to Hawaii Island, where he served as chairman of the board of directors of the Five Mountain Medical Community as it developed the North Hawaii Community Hospital. He also helped to develop Tutu's House, a community resource center, and Kohala Center, which focuses on scientific resources and education.
finfagrave.com
In 1949 Earl Bakken and Palmer Hermundslie established a partnership for the repair of delicate laboratory and medical equipment. They named their company 'Medtronics'. In the mid-1950's Medtronics began working with the cardiac surgeons at the University of Minnesota Hospital. Within 3 to 4 years they had developed the first external, wearable, battery-powered transistorized pacemaker for human use, after cardiac surgery. By the late 1950's Dr. William Chardack and Wilson Greatbatch in Buffalo, New York had tested, on experimental dogs, an implantable, transistorized, mercury-zinc battery-operated pacemaker for potential long term treatment of heart block. Palmer Hermundslie flew to NY. in October, 1960 and signed a contract that gave Medtronics exclusive rights to produce and market the implantable cardiac pacemaker for human use. (In 1950 Hopps had built a pacemaker but it was too large to have practical application and there was no further development of his device.Thus, all of those listed plus others, that had studied the electrical stimulation of the heart muscle, were involved in various ways in the development of a cardiac pacemaker. Medtronics, under Bakken and Hermundslie, got out of the starting gate first and fastest. Pacemakers now have built-in automatic cardiac defibrillators).
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1924 - 2018 (94 år)
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