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Inventor whose work advanced the use of heart pacemakers passes away

Inventor whose work advanced the use of heart pacemakers passes away

WILSON Greatbatch, who has died aged 92, did not invent the heart pacemaker device, but his work in the field resulted in major advances in the use of the life-saving unit.

He will be remembered for two major aspects of the pacemaker — the development of an implantable device and the use of lithium batteries to keep the units going for long periods.

When Mr. Greatbatch began work on developing his pacemaker in 1956, the principles behind using such a device to keep hearts functioning were already well understood. But early designs were extremely large and had to be plugged into the mains electricity.

However, while a pacemaker was first implanted by a medical team in Sweden in 1958, it proved unreliable at first.

In the same year Mr. Greatbatch had shown surgeon William Chardack his designs. Within weeks Mr. Chardack had implanted one of the devices in a dog. They then began to collaborate on refining the design and in June, 1960, the first of what was to become known as The Chardack-Greatbatch pacemaker was implanted in an elderly man who was suffering from an irregular heartbeat.

Early problems were soon overcome and in 1960 the men had licensed a Minneapolis company to manufacture the pacemakers which were used across the world.

Mr. Greatbatch went on to develop a new lithium-based battery which was to revolutionise pacemaker technology.

He never tired of designing things and by his death Mr. Greatbatch had patented several hundred inventions, some of which were equipment used in medical research.

To view an interview with Dr. Greatblatch click here.

 

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