Wilson Greatbatch
Published on Nov 18, 2015
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Wilson Greatbatch
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Wilson Greatbatch, born on September 6, 1919, died on September 27, 2011 at the age of 92. He was the first practical inventor implantable pacemaker, a device that has preserved millions of lives.
Wilson Greatbatch accidentally invented the pacemaker. In the 1950s, he left the Navy and was working as medical researcher. He was building an oscillator to record heart sounds when he pulled the wrong resistor out of a box. When he assembled his device, it began to give off a rhythmic electrical pulse. He realized his invention could be used as a pacemaker. He spent two years refining his device and was awarded a patent for world's first implantable pacemaker.
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A pacemaker is a small device that's placed in the chest or abdomen to help control abnormal heart rhythms. This device uses electrical pulses to prompt the heart to beat at a normal rate. The device does not give your heart an electric shock, so you won't die.
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Benefits of the pacemaker is that they're used to treat bradycardia. Bradycardia is a slow or irregular heart rhythm, usually fewer than 60 beats per minute. The device sends tiny electrical signals to the heart to increase the heart rate.
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Pacemakers are used to treat arrhythmias, arrhythmias are problems with the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat. During an arrhythmia, the heart can beat too fast, too slow, or with an irregular rhythm.
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The disadvantages of having a pacemaker is when sudden changes in heartbeat do take place in persons with normal hearts, they often experience symptoms as an aching in the heart area or a feeling of weakness.
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The limitations of the pacemakers is that they're strongly attracted to magnet, so you'll have limitations to magnetic and electromagnetic fields, electric or gas-powered appliances, and tools with which you are allowed to be in contact.
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Another limitations of the pacemaker is infection at the surgery location. Patients may be allergic to the anesthesia and experience swelling and bruising. More extreme risks include a collapsed lung or damage to blood vessels or nerves near the pacemaker implantation.
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The goal of pacemakers in future is having no batteries required. The devices rely on batteries and therefore have to be taken out when the batteries need replacement. Doctors are planning to have no batteries for the device or halving the size of the batteries.
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Dr. Amin Karami plans to have pacemakers powered by your own heartbeat instead of batteries. The pacemaker will work by the vibrations of the heartbeat in the chest. heartbeat-induced vibrations in the chest. The team will used a 'shaker' to reproduce the vibrations in the laboratory and connected it to a prototype cardiac energy harvester they had developed.
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