A mistake that ultimately saved millions
Wilson Greatbatch’s life reads like a case study in how curiosity, persistence, and a willingness to embrace mistakes can reshape the world. Born in 1919 in Buffalo, New York, he grew up fascinated by radios and electronics, often taking devices apart just to understand how they worked. That early tinkering spirit never left him, and it ultimately led to one of the most important medical innovations of the twentieth century: the pacemaker. While he held over 325 patents, he is best known for inventing the first practical implantable pacemaker, a device that has since saved millions of lives.
The Serendipitous Mistake
After serving as a radio operator in World War II, Greatbatch studied electrical engineering at Cornell University. His career initially followed a fairly ordinary path—teaching, research, and small engineering projects but he loved tinkering with problems that in electronics and health. That intersection became his life’s defining focus in 1956, when he made the mistake that changed everything. He was working on a project at the University of Buffalo, building an oscillator to record heart sounds.
While assembling the circuit, he reached for a resistor. He accidentally pulled out a 1-megohm resistor instead of the intended 10-kilohm resistor. When he plugged it into the circuit, the device didn’t behave as a sound recorder. Instead, it emitted a steady, rhythmic electrical pulse.
Greatbatch immediately recognized the rhythm. It pulsed for 1.8 milliseconds and then paused for one second, a pattern that perfectly mimicked the human heartbeat. “I stared at the thing in disbelief,” he later recalled. He realized that if this small circuit could be made reliable and portable, it could jump-start a heart that had lost its natural rhythm.
Overcoming the “Impossible”
Turning a bench-top accident into a medical reality was an uphill battle. At the time, the idea of putting a battery-powered machine inside a living human body was seen as science fiction, if not outright dangerous. Early prototypes were bulky, unreliable, and prone to battery failure. Greatbatch spent years experimenting with materials, circuitry, and power sources. Using his won savings he built a clean room in a barn behind his house so he could assemble components without contamination. Many colleagues doubted the project, and funding was scarce. Medical regulators were cautious, surgeons were skeptical, and the technology itself was unproven. Greatbatch had to convince not only the scientific community but also manufacturers and hospitals that his invention could be safe and transformative.
In 1958, Greatbatch teamed up with Dr. William Chardack and Dr. Andrew Gage. After successful animal trials, they performed the first human implant in 1960 on a 77-year-old man, whose heart was about to give out. They implanted a pacemaker device and the man lived for another 18 months.
Greatbatch didn’t stop at the circuit design. Recognizing that the biggest point of failure was still the battery, he later acquired the rights to the lithium-iodine battery in the 1970s. This innovation extended the lifespan of pacemakers from two years to over ten, eliminating the need for frequent, risky replacement surgeries.
His story is a reminder that progress often begins with a mistake, followed by the stubborn belief that the mistake might hold a hidden opportunity. Greatbatch didn’t just build a device; he reshaped the possibilities of modern medicine through sheer determination and an engineer’s instinct to keep pushing until the design finally works.
He died in 2011 at the age of 92.
Based on a chapter in The Art of Unexpected Solutions.
