A 17-day stay in the hospital got Bob Heitkamp’s brain working on a problem: the fact that about one-half of all intravenous (IV) lines come out accidentally at one time or another.

His solution to the problem is called the Site Saver, and it won the first place Bob Starr Award at this year’s Minnesota Inventors Con-gress.

“I had a simple knee surgery,” Heitkamp said. “It’s a procedure that hundreds of thousands of people have every year. But I found out in the process that I have clotting disorder. I clot too aggressively and ended up with a pulmonary embolism, which is a very bad thing to happen.

“I ended up with a second one, and ended up staying in the hospital for quite some time. I found myself staying awake at night trying not to pull out my IV tube. I never lost it, but lost a lot of sleep over it.”

Heitkamp spent his time wisely, contemplating just exactly what would keep an IV line in place, would be comfortable, simple and inexpensive.

Heitkamp worked on some ideas in his hospital bed and eventually drew a sketch on the back of an insurance form and gave it to his wife.

“A couple of years later, here we go,” Heitkamp said. “I work for a company in Wahpeton, ND, that used to be an old 3M plant. I talked to the owner and said I had a product idea. And here we go.”

Heitkamp said his boss worked him through the whole venture planning process, helped him develop the mold for the product and patenting process.

“We have our product trademarked and are meeting with marketing people trying to get things rolling at this point,” Heitkamp said. “Hopefully by the mid to late July time frame we can get this product out there.”

The Site Saver Peripheral Catheter Lock is a Class I exempt device and needs no Food and Drug Administra-tion approval, according to Heitkamp.

“We are having a professional opinion written on the matter, because there is no other device like this in the world,” Heitkamp said.

“Insurance is filed and everything is ready, set, go. The professional opinion should actually be done today and on my desk. We are now looking at licensing and possibly teaming up with a larger medical device company to get it out there quicker, so the public can get it.”

Heitkamp said that his company plans on manufacturing the product right in Wahpeton at the ComDel plant he works at.

“They will be named as the preferred manufacturer of choice,” Heitkamp said. “If all goes well, it will all stay right there. That would be nice, as we have been in the development phase of this product for about the past 20 months.”

Previously Heitkamp has won first place at an inventors competition in Bismark, ND, and an Innovate MD competition, also in North Dakota.

“The past few months this has really snowballed,” Heitkamp said. “We came down here and won again, so we are on a heck of a roll. It is great to see this whole thing come together.”