A museum is “a permanent, nonprofit institution, to serve society in its development, it is open to the public and acquires, conserves, researches, disseminates and explains the material evidence of mankind and their surroundings, for the education and delight of society. ”
The idea of a pacemaker was developed in 1930 by AS Hyman, which revived a heart with electrical impulses conducted into the chest through a needle. At the request of surgeon Ake Senning, Swedish Rune Elmqvist developed a pacemaker implanted under the skin in 1958. On October 8th, 1958 the equipment was implanted in Arne Larsson, the era of pacemakers was then started, and the lives of millions of people have been saved ever since.
The devices presented are part of the collection of Dr. Celso Salgado de Melo, who portrays the development of artificial cardiac pacing. Dr. Celso has always been a laborious entrepreneur in favor of this collection, searching, cataloging and presenting at various events where the Department of Artificial Cardiac Pacing (DECA) was present. It was up to D.E.C.A. to organize and file these pieces enabling permanent access to this virtual museum, which can be viewed around the world, providing real cultural benefit to the public.
We hope to keep the memory of artificial cardiac pacing, not only in Brazil but also in the world, helping students and health professionals in general to understand the enormous progress that this field of medicine has obtained. Here one sees clearly the involvement of not only doctors, but those looking for solutions to a serious problem afflicting our society, and this effort of engineers, physicists, paramedics and several professionals allowed to save and provide quality of life to many sick people.
DECA, a pioneer in cardiac pacing in Brazil!
Wilson Lopes Pereira
President of DECA
2011 – 2012
