Wilson Greatbatch, 92, inventor of the implantable pacemaker has died in Buffalo, New York.
The cause of his death is unknown, but his son in law confirm that his health had been unstable.
In 1998 he was admitted to the National Inventors’ Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio.
His invention was named one of the 10 great engineering contributions to society in the past 50 years, by the National Society of Professional Engineers.
The first successful implant of a pacemaker took place at the Buffalo Veterans’ Affairs Hospital. The 77-year-old patient lived for 18 months after the device was implanted.
Since then, hundreds of thousands of people receive pacemakers every year.
He was awarded the Lemelson-MIT Prize for lifetime achievement in 1996, aged 76.
Greatbatch studied electrical engineering at Cornell University and the University of Buffalo, where he then taught engineering between 1952 and 1957.
He was married to Eleanor, his wife for more than 60 years, where they had five children.
