Medtronic Unit Gets $6-Million Soviet Contract : Commerce: Anaheim-based division to supply 20,000 blood oxygenators to the Ministry of Health, which will distribute them to its nation’s hospitals.

An Anaheim division of a Minneapolis biomedical manufacturer will supply 20,000 blood oxygenators to hospitals in the Soviet Union under a contract that company officials valued at $6 million.

Medtronic Cardiopulmonary, a 380-employee division of Medtronic Inc., manufactures the Maxima blood oxygenator, a disposable device used to perform the functions of the lungs during open-heart surgery.

Winston R. Wallin, Medtronic’s chairman and chief executive, said Thursday that the sale is the largest the Minneapolis firm has ever made in Eastern Europe. It is also believed to be the largest single Soviet purchase of oxygenators from a U.S. company. Two other Orange County firms--Shiley Inc. and Baxter Healthcare Corp.’s Bentley Laboratories division, both in Irvine--have made smaller sales of oxygenators to the Soviets.

Medtronic will begin shipping the oxygenators to the Soviet Union in June, said Willard Lewis, general manager of the Anaheim division. The Soviet Union’s Ministry of Health will distribute the devices to various hospitals that perform open-heart surgery in the Soviet Union, he said.

The Hokkaido Takushoku Bank Ltd. of Japan has issued a letter of credit guaranteeing that Medtronic will receive payment for the equipment in U.S. dollars, Lewis said.

“We estimate that this order would comprise the majority of the oxygenator requirements of the Soviet health ministry for a year,” said Jim Pacek, the division’s marketing director.

Negotiations with Soviet ministry officials and Medtronic representatives in Paris and Anaheim began last July after Soviet officials visited Medtronic’s Anaheim facility, Medtronic officials said. Under the contract, Medtronic will also provide technical and educational support to the Soviets, said Dick Reid, a Medtronic spokesman in Minneapolis. Medtronic will send technicians to Soviet hospitals to train their medical staffs, and some Soviet doctors, medical technicians and health ministry officials will receive training at Medtronic’s European headquarters in Paris.