Earl Bakken

Lore & Background

Earl Bakken was born in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, of Norwegian ancestry. Fascinated by electricity from a young age, he designed a rudimentary electroshock weapon in school to fend off bullies. After World War II, hospitals used electronic equipment but lacked maintenance staff. Bakken and his brother-in-law Palmer Hermundslie formed Medtronic in a garage, working primarily with the University of Minnesota hospital. In the 1950s, Dr. C. Walton Lillehei performed surgery on children with blue baby syndrome, leaving them needing temporary pacemakers. The existing pacemakers were large, cart-mounted, and reliant on wall current. Lillehei's young patients, Bakken was asked to solve the problem. Four weeks later, using a circuit diagram for a metronome from Popular Electronics, he delivered a battery-powered transistorized pacemaker the size of a few decks of cards. Over the next several years, Bakken and Medtronic developed fully implantable pacemakers but nearly went bankrupt. Borrowing money kept the company afloat, and the near-miss drove Bakken to create the Medtronic Mission, which still guides the company. In 2001, Medtronic built a European distribution center in Heerlen, Netherlands, on a street named after Bakken.

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, 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 developed the first battery-powered pacemaker in four weeks after finding a circuit diagram for a metronome in Popular Electronics.
• The street on which Medtronic's European distribution center in Heerlen, Netherlands, is built is named after Bakken.