Earl Bakken

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Lore & Background

Earl Bakken was born on January 10, 1924, in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, and was of Norwegian ancestry. A self-described "nerd," he designed a rudimentary electroshock weapon in school to fend off bullies. After earning his degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota, Bakken saw an opportunity in post-World War II hospitals that used electronic equipment but lacked maintenance staff. 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 Lillehei performed life-saving surgery on children with blue baby syndrome, leaving them needing temporary pacemakers. The existing pacemakers were large, cart-mounted, and reliant on wall current. After a power blackout on October 31, 1957, one of Dr. Lillehei's young patients died. Dr. Lillehei asked Bakken 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. After successful lab testing, Bakken returned to create a refined model, but found the pacemaker already in use on a patient the next day. Over the next several years, Bakken and Medtronic developed fully implantable pacemakers but veered toward bankruptcy. He borrowed money to keep Medtronic going, and the near-miss drove him to develop the Medtronic Mission, which still guides the company. Bakken retired in 1989 and moved to a 9-acre estate in the Kona District of Hawaii he called Bakken Hale, but returned to the company several times a year to meet new employees and explain the Mission. In 1996 he helped dedicate the North Hawaii Community Hospital and worked to combine Eastern and Western approaches to medicine. In 2001, Medtronic built a European distribution center in Heerlen, The Netherlands, on a street named after Bakken. He died at his Hawaii home on October 21, 2018, at age 94.

Reader's Guide

Earl Bakken's significance lies in his pivotal role in making cardiac pacing practical and portable. His innovation, sparked by a child's death during a blackout on October 31, 1957, saved countless lives and laid the foundation for modern implantable pacemakers. Beyond the device itself, Bakken's founding of Medtronic established a company that became a global leader in medical technology. The Medtronic Mission, developed after a near-bankruptcy, provided a lasting ethical and strategic framework that kept the company focused on patient needs. His legacy also includes The Bakken, a museum in Minneapolis dedicated to medical science and electricity, featuring an extensive Frankenstein display—a nod to the literary inspiration that sparked his career. Bakken's work exemplifies how engineering ingenuity, when combined with clinical collaboration, can produce transformative medical advances.

Did You Know?

• Bakken designed a rudimentary electroshock weapon in school to fend off bullies.
• He was inspired by Mary Shelley's novel *Frankenstein* and the 1931 film version starring Boris Karloff.
• The first battery-powered transistorized pacemaker was about the size of a few decks of cards.
• Bakken found the pacemaker already in use on a patient the day after delivering a refined model.
• He moved to a 9-acre estate in the Kona District of Hawaii called Bakken Hale after retiring in 1989.