3 ms·

This seems like a terrible design decision. I always thought magnets were interfering with the function of the pacemaker, but to use them as a crude communicati

• vacri 14y ago
  If you needed to turn off the implant right here and now, how are you going to do it? Carve into their chest and flick a switch? Magnets are common and can be found in most locations.
  • ctdonath 14y ago
    That's it. Disconcerting, yes, but no better option - and I lived thru "needed to reset the implant right here and now" (150 BPM for 12 hours sucks; didn't want another 2+ waiting for a better protocol to arrive).
    • gonzo 14y ago
      I survived the other end of the scale. I managed to live with a heart rate between 25 and 45 bpm for 7 hours. My aorta was 6.5cm in diameter before they found the ascending dissection, which started about 1mm from the aortic root, and terminates in my left iliac. I had a pacer wire for about 5 days post-surgery. Shocked me once. That sucked.
      • ctdonath 14y ago
        Before the implant I had an external pacemaker for 3 days. No shocks, but someone brought a bunch of med students by and started fiddling with the BPM knob for no good reason. "Please stop that." And be very, very careful with that wire. Post implant, setup process caused several convulsions. Harmless, but gave me a giggling fit. Thanks to one wire too close to my diaphragm I couldn't sleep on my left side (compressed them together) for two years until they figured out how to reprogram it to stop making me twitch each beat. Diagnostics is always amusing when they drop the heart rate to 40, and do it as if I won't notice.