In Focus

And the beat goes on, well after age 65

My mother is alive. Though, a week ago weren't sure what God had in store for her.

In a nutshell, last Wednesday, my mother collapsed on the golf course, was rushed to the emergency room and was told that her heart was only beating 30 times per minute, (normal pulse is 80). She's a healthy person, a non-smoker, average weight, and is very active with her hiking friends. If anything, you might call her a type A personality. At age 70, she still works full time and isn't able to sit for more than a minute, and that's only to write up her lists. But, last week, her heart decided it was time to slow down, and that it did, almost to a complete stop.

What a difference a week makes, and in her case, what a difference two days makes.

On that Thursday, she had surgery to implant a pacemaker, and on Friday she came home from the hospital. On Monday, she was back at work full time. Nothing short of a miracle, or what I like to believe, a gift from God via a company right here in Minnesota.

Ten years ago my dad had a heart attack. Double, triple and quadruple bypass surgeries were to follow. They were pretty invasive procedures, and the least of them took six weeks to recover.

So much has changed in ten years, and the world of heart surgery has been completely turned on its head, thanks to technology and a little Minnesota based company called Medtronic.

One of my passions in life is studying publicly traded companies. Some companies I never would have heard of unless they knocked me over the head. When my dad had his heart attack, I started asking questions of the doctors and nurses and took note of the companies who were leading in heart research. I started reading as much as I could about them.

Medtronic was at the top of the list, and I loved their history. Let me share -
Back in 1949, a man named Earl Bakken spent a lot of time waiting for his wife to finish up work at Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. He would chat with the doctors who learned that Earl was a graduate student working in electrical engineering. They would ask Earl to repair small medical equipment, as there was no one in the hospital who could work on such small delicate devices. Eventually Earl had to enlist the help of his brother-in-law, Palmer. Being smart Minnesotans, they recognized a need in the medical field and soon after, Earl left his graduate studies and Palmer quit his job at a lumber firm. They set up their medical equipment repair shop in a 600-square foot garage in Northeast Minneapolis and called themselves, Medtronic.
It was a rough start, as one month they grossed only $8.00. They decided to branch out (probably because of a need to put food on the table) and started representing medical equipment manufacturers. They sold products throughout the Midwest and got to know doctors who would often request Earl and Palmer to make them specific devices. Hence, a leap from a medical rep company to a medical technology company. By the end of the fifties they had manufactured almost 100 custom-made devices, one of them being the life-changing pacemaker.
Since then, they have become the world's leader in medical technology. They have improved upon the pacemaker a thousand times over, from it being a device worn outside the body which had to be plugged into an electrical outlet, to a small implant that can wirelessly send messages to the tracking physician on the condition of the heart. It has changed the lives of people around the world, including mine.
A year ago, when my dad's heart started to freak out again, (the four atriums decided they didn't want to work together anymore), the doctor's implanted a Medtronic defibrillator under the skin of his chest. One day he was almost dead, the next, they discharged him from the hospital and told him to have a nice life. And since then, he has.

I remember talking to the medical staff after his surgery asking if they could put one of those defibs in me immediately. "Why not be safe and prepared?" I asked. "After watching all those heart videos and those new devices that Medtronic makes, can't I just get one now?" I begged. These Medtronic thing-a-ma-jigs were better than dental veneers in my book.

Last week, I did it again. I begged the heart surgeon to pull me into the operating room next. I wanted a pacemaker, and if they were out of those, I'd take the defib.

A study came out this week that life after 65 looks healthier than ever. By 2030, the number of 65-year-olds will have doubled thanks to companies like Medtronic. The research and development these companies carry out, make me very happy I was born in today's world instead of years before.

I want to thank Medtronic for saving two of the most important people in my life and giving them many more years after 65. As Minnesotans, we should all be proud.