Is it necessary to get a pacemaker at this stage?

My Dad (age 55) was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy Dec '09 after a visit to the family doctor for what he thought might be pneumonia. The Doctor had done some work in a cardio unit, recognized his condition and sent him for tests. Cardiomyopathy caused by a viral infection of his heart.
Long story short, they feel he had a heart attack sometime not long before then, & they said his percentage was between 13%-17%.
The first specialist gave him lots of reason to hope that in a year he would be back to normal.
He is on Coreg, and lisinopril & gets extremely worn out, sleeps alot, and just has a hard time overall. As of Spring'10 his percentage was up in the 26% range.
At that Dr appt. they sent him to see a pacemaker specialist. We are feeling a little bit like we are getting lost in the system of money hungry doctors, and are wondering if others with cardiomyopathy were encouraged to get a pacemaker.
I wouldn't normally consider myself a skeptic, & I really dont want to end up losing my Dad, but I've been hearing so many different things. I guess ultimately it is my Dad's decision, but I would like to be informed as possible.
I'd love to have your feedback!

[anandbharti]

I am sorry to hear about your dad. When you say the % is now 26%, I presume you mean the ejection fraction. Ejection fraction ( EF)  means, the blood ejected by one of the heart chambers ( the ventricle ) into the aorta and then into the body, when the heart contracts. For a normal heart, it is 55-65% . Having EF of 13-17% or 26% can put a person at high risk of cardiac arrest where if the heart is not restarted within eight minutes, then the person can suffer brain damage or more likely, death. When your Dr. talks about pacemaker, he /she is probably talking about a pacemaker combined with a defibrillator ( ICD) . The ICD works by shocking the heart and restarting it if a person goes into cardiac arrest or ventricular fibrillation.
I have an ICD implanted in me. At that time, a Dr estimated my EF to be in the 20-25% range by echo cardiogram or nuclear stress test. A subsequent, and more accurate, catheterization test showed it to be in the 40% range. However, at that time they decided to implant anyway. Have I been shocked, ? Yes, according to my Dr., when I forgot to take  my coreg dose but more likely, an instrument malfunction !
My advice for your dad: Get as many opinions as you can to ascertain the exact EF range. If all them show it to be in the 20-30 % range , then I would recommend getting a pacemaker / ICD.
I had my ICD for three years, however, apart from the one incident I described. above , the device has not "fired" .
Incidentally, I have a full time job and lead a nearly normal life.

I agree with your phrase, money hungry doctors, however, the "what if" always got  me eventually to go through procedures such as bypass, angioplasty or ICD implantation.

Good luck !