medical electronic service company? Medtronic. It has grown into the
world’s largest medical device company, with annual revenues
approaching $30 billion, employing over 80,000 people, and boasting a
market capitalization of about $100 billion.^14 Pacemakers were soon made
implantable, with the main application for elderly patients suffering from
age-related cardiac arrhythmias. Almost 500,000 pacemakers are
implanted every year, and it’s a virtual guarantee that you, Dear Reader,
know someone with a tiny pacemaker implanted under their skin, resting
upon their pectoralis muscle, covertly flickering away. They are so
efficient, it doesn’t seem revolutionary to an individual, but it does feel
like a miracle.
Aged ninety-four and living in a grand house on the Kona coast of
Hawaii, one of the great pioneers of the electronic implantable medical
device industry is at peace. Earl Bakken has invited me to his exceptional
home on the big island of Hawaii. For the man who understands how
electricity can sustain life, it is not that surprising that he is completely
“off the grid,” owning the largest personal photovoltaic farm in the world.
Overlooking Kiholo Bay, Mr. Bakken is self-powered and even makes his
own fresh water with desalination machines. He favors “high touch and
high technology,” and is worried that mankind is losing the sense of the
mystical and becoming too obsessed with newfangled technology.
Although Earl Bakken hasn’t granted an interview in years, he was
receptive to a visit by this surgeon once he learned the purpose of my
project. (Earl Bakken would die eight months later, in October 2018.)
Meeting one of the giants of the implant revolution is a sobering honor,
and after navigating a series of guard gates with electronic key pads (I’m
armed with the codes) and driving along a paved road surrounded by
volcanic rocks, I park under palm trees outside his office. Inside, Earl is
seated on his scooter, flanked by bookshelves. There are awards and
plaques here and there, but a toy Frankenstein doll up high on a shelf
brings a smile to my face.
Earl Bakken recounts the old days, the threat of business failures along
the way, his regrets and his triumphs, but the thing I am most impressed
with is his belief in living a “full life.” The mission statement of
Medtronic genuinely beats in his heart, and our conversation is peppered
with his lifelong sense of obligation to alleviate pain, restore health, and
extend life.