Arne Larsson, a Swedish patient with a life-threatening heart condition, received the first fully implantable cardiac pacemaker in October 1958, designed by Rune Elmqvist and implanted by surgeon Åke Senning — the device failed within hours, but Larsson went on to receive over 20 replacement pacemakers over his lifetime and outlived both the inventor and the surgeon, dying in 2001.
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Arne Larsson, a Swedish patient with a life-threatening heart condition, received the first fully implantable cardiac pacemaker in October 1958, designed by Rune Elmqvist and implanted by surgeon Åke Senning — the device failed within hours, but Larsson went on to receive over 20 replacement pacemakers over his lifetime and outlived both the inventor and the surgeon, dying in 2001.
The year the first fully implantable cardiac pacemaker was surgically placed in a human patient.
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Limits Registry. LR-FIRST-PACEMAKER. First implantable cardiac pacemaker. 2026.