By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
WAIMEA, Hawai‘i — Just days after accepting a top engineering prize in Washington, D.C., for developing the heart pacemaker, West Hawai‘i philanthropist Earl Bakken became a beneficiary of his own life-saving invention.
 |
| Earl Bakken was honored for developing the pacemaker.
Advertiser library photo • Oct. 13, 1996 |
Bakken, 77, received a pacemaker Saturday and was reported doing well yesterday at North Hawai‘i Medical Center, an institution he helped launch in the 1990s. Neither Bakken nor his wife was available for comment yesterday, but sources close to the family said he was resting at the hospital and was expected to be there for several days.
The sources said the procedure was performed after Bakken experienced an irregular heartbeat during his trip to the nation’s capital, where he received his share of the $500,000 Russ Prize Feb. 20 from the National Academy of Engineering.
Wilson Greatbatch of Akron, N.Y., who worked on improving the pacemaker, was a co-recipient.
Bakken is credited with developing a transistorized, battery-powered pacemaker in 1957. The device, small enough for a patient to carry around, was connected to the heart with a wire through the skin. Pacemakers use an electrical charge to re-establish a regular heart rythm. Three years later, Greatbatch developed a model that could be surgically implanted. He licensed his invention to Medtronics Inc., a company founded by Bakken.
Bakken, who prefers to keep his acts of generosity out of the spotlight, has turned his prize money over to a private foundation to create engineering scholarships.
He served for years as board chairman of the North Hawai‘i Medical Center and contributed $3 million to the acquisition of an advanced magnetic resonance imaging device. His donation became public after federal rules required that the source of financing be revealed.
[back to top] |
