1957

First successful use of myocardial electrode and artificial pacemaker (wearable transistorized) by Walton Lillehei and his team at Univ. Minnesota (Richardson, 62). New version of DeWall-Lillehei oxygenator brought to market at under $100 (Miller, 182). Bakken delivered prototype of battery-powered external pulse generator to Lillehei in January 1958; after a few dog experiments, he used it on a patient (Jeffrey, ch 3). Lillehei completes his 413th open heart surgery and is voted Minnesota’s man of the year (Miller, 187).