1958

Lillehei’s first use of portable (smaller than a pbk. book) battery-powered pacemaker (designed and built by his Bakken, whose company [Medtronics] repaired and modified electric devices for surgery department) on child who developed heart block during open heart surgery (Miller, 197). The device, used with surgically implanted wire electrode, was a godsend for children who, following heart surgery to repair congenital defects, developed heart block. They couldn’t tolerate the voltage of external electrodes, so the device was attached to a needle that went through the chest wall into the myocardium, which permitted drastic reduction of voltage necessary to “capture” the child’s heartbeat (Jeffrey, ch 3). The portable battery-powered pacemaker, strapped to chest, made post-op children mobile in the hospital, and eliminated dependency on hospital AC power . Commercial version of the portable pulse generator delivered to Lillehei was the Medtronics Model 5600. (Jeffrey, ch 3).