Aa
pacemaker
My father has had a pacemaker / defibulator for about 7 years. He recently had a heart attack. if his defib was working properly, should he have had a heart attack? His doctor just replaced his defibulator with a new one because it wasn't working. What I wanted to know is if the defib is controlling the heart function, why did he have an attack?
Thank you,
Thank you,
Are there any persons in there 20/30/40s with a defib fitted and if so is there anything that restricts you?. I had a defib implanted 12 weeks ago and I am 26 years old, and have been having pain and discomfort, doctors are putting this down to young active lifestyle.
Ana,
I had my defibrillator implanted last July, in fact it was done on my 50th birthday. A defibrillator does not prevent a heart attack, that is not what it is for. What it does is prevent SCA, Sudden Cardiac Arrest and death which accompanies that. I suffered three near fatal heart attacks since the implant was done and knew that the device was not at fault. I was supposed to be on medications for my heart problems and ran out, so, I had the heart attacks. I also know that every seven years (or thereabouts) my device will need a battery replacement. While I wish your father was doing better, I can say that the defibrillator may have saved his life by preventing sudden cardiac arrest. I do not know what model your father has and even if I did would not know how it works, I just know how mine works and it seems to be working well so far. The pacemaker part of it is programmed to record heart rate that is too fast, my heart rate usually runs at 120 beats per minute but is not considered fast enough to do serious damage by my electrophysiologist so mine is programmed to slow things down if my heart rate reaches 135 beats per minute. I do not know if that is good or bad since I can no longer see the doctors having no insurance available to me.
Sorry if this has dragged on, I just meant to let you know my defibrillator works and that I believe it is how most of them work. Someone else may step in and provide a better answer.
Jim
I had my defibrillator implanted last July, in fact it was done on my 50th birthday. A defibrillator does not prevent a heart attack, that is not what it is for. What it does is prevent SCA, Sudden Cardiac Arrest and death which accompanies that. I suffered three near fatal heart attacks since the implant was done and knew that the device was not at fault. I was supposed to be on medications for my heart problems and ran out, so, I had the heart attacks. I also know that every seven years (or thereabouts) my device will need a battery replacement. While I wish your father was doing better, I can say that the defibrillator may have saved his life by preventing sudden cardiac arrest. I do not know what model your father has and even if I did would not know how it works, I just know how mine works and it seems to be working well so far. The pacemaker part of it is programmed to record heart rate that is too fast, my heart rate usually runs at 120 beats per minute but is not considered fast enough to do serious damage by my electrophysiologist so mine is programmed to slow things down if my heart rate reaches 135 beats per minute. I do not know if that is good or bad since I can no longer see the doctors having no insurance available to me.
Sorry if this has dragged on, I just meant to let you know my defibrillator works and that I believe it is how most of them work. Someone else may step in and provide a better answer.
Jim
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