The First Implanted Pacemaker
Next: October 8, 2027
Keeping hearts in time since 1958.
The story
Where it comes from
This Story marks the anniversary of 8 October 1958, when the surgeon Åke Senning, at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, implanted the first pacemaker to be placed inside a patient's body. It was built by Rune Elmqvist of the Swedish firm Elema-Schönander, using silicon transistors, then a new technology. The patient, the engineer Arne Larsson, was 43, and his heart had slowed so far that he collapsed many times a day. The two men felt their prototype was not ready, but Larsson's wife, Else-Marie, pleaded with them: 'Make one.'
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance, though heart journals and the company that grew out of Elema-Schönander marked the 50th anniversary in 2008. Millions of people have since lived fuller lives with a pacemaker, each one a descendant of that first small device. It is a good day to thank the cardiologists, nurses and technicians who look after them, and to check in on someone whose heart keeps time with a little help.
Did you know
- The first unit, placed in the wall of Larsson's abdomen, worked for only three hours, so the team replaced it the next morning with the only backup they had.
- Larsson went on to receive more than 20 pacemakers and lived to 86, outliving both the surgeon and the engineer who saved him.
- Before 1958 the only pacemakers were large machines that stayed outside the body, for temporary use.
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