Editing Pacemaker (section)

=== Wearable ===
In 1958, engineer [[Earl Bakken]] of Minneapolis, Minnesota, produced the first wearable external pacemaker for a patient of [[C. Walton Lillehei]]. This transistorized pacemaker, housed in a small plastic box, had controls to permit adjustment of pacing heart rate and output voltage and was connected to electrode [[Lead (electronics)|leads]] which passed through the skin of the patient to terminate in electrodes attached to the surface of the [[myocardium]] of the heart.

In the UK in the 1960s, Lucas Engineering in [[Birmingham]] was asked by Mr Abrams of The [[Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham|Queen Elizabeth Hospital]] to produce a prototype for a transistorised replacement for the electro-mechanical product. The team was headed by Roger Nolan, an engineer with the Lucas Group Research Centre. Nolan designed and created the first blocking oscillator and transistor-powered pacemaker. This pacemaker was worn on a belt and powered by a rechargeable sealed battery, enabling users to live a more-normal life.

One of the earliest patients to receive this Lucas pacemaker device was a woman in her early 30s. The operation was carried out in 1964 by South African cardiac surgeon Alf Gunning,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E001783b.htm |title= Gunning, Alfred James – Biographical entry – Plarr's Lives of the Fellows Online |publisher=Livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk |access-date=2013-12-29}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nds.ox.ac.uk/about-us/our-history |title=Our history |website = Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences |publisher=University of Oxford |access-date=26 October 2020}}</ref> a student of [[Christiaan Barnard]]. This pioneering operation took place under the guidance of cardiac consultant [[Peter Sleight]] at the [[Radcliffe Infirmary]] in Oxford and his cardiac research team at St George's Hospital in London.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bcs.com/pages/Cardiac_Pacemakers.asp |title=British Cardiovascular Society |publisher=Bcs.com |access-date=2013-12-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212164351/http://www.bcs.com/pages/Cardiac_Pacemakers.asp |archive-date=2013-12-12 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Record |first1=C O |last2=Sleight |first2=P |last3=Gunning |first3=A J |last4=Kenworthy-Browne |first4=J M |last5=Richings |first5=M |title=Treatment of chronic heart block with the Lucas induction coil pacemaker |journal=Heart |date=1 November 1971 |volume=33 |issue=6 |pages=938–42 |doi=10.1136/hrt.33.6.938 |pmid=5120241 |pmc=458452 }}</ref>