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Article: Bakken gives health care in Hawaii a strong pulse; In retirement on the Big Island of Hawaii, a Minnesota medical engineering legend is experimenting with health care.(BUSINESS INSIDER)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- October 13, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Star Tribune Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: JANET MOORE; STAFF WRITER
Nearly 20 years ago, Doris Bakken fell in love with an expanse of oceanfront land on the Big Island of Hawaii, a patch of paradise for a retirement home. But the real estate agent warned: There was no water, electricity or sewer service.
"That's OK," she replied. "My husband is an engineer."
Indeed he is: Earl Bakken is the inventor of the first battery-powered pacemaker and a co-founder of Medtronic Inc., now the world's biggest medical technology company, with $13.5 billion in revenue.
It turned out that paradise would require a good deal of the inventor's ingenuity.
Once the Bakkens ...