leads coming loose

Hi everyone, I had my pacemaker put in 6 weeks ago. I haven't had any major problems just the fact it's uncomfortable, I have had a little bit of heartburn which I never had before. The doctor won't let me return to work for another 2 weeks because he doesn't want the leads to be pulled loose. I'm concerned a bit about returning to work because I have to unload trucks and reach high to unload them. I am 63 and am asst manager in retail and my job requires a lot of heavy lifting. Should I be worried? I also am concerned because 3 weeks ago my daughter's mother in law went to Emory to have her pm replaced because her lead was loose and they also wanted to put in a newer model. When the Dr. pulled the wire out it touched a nerve and she bled to death. On the death certificate they put accident. I don't mean to scare anyone but there can be a possibility something could go wrong when removing the lead. I would certainly get the best if I have to have mine replaced.

5 Comments

judgement call

by mike thurston - 2010-12-06 04:12:08

Very sorry to hear of your Mother In Laws death. There is always that possibility. As far as lifting goes I lift weights, climb and bike. I would think the highly repetitive, heavy, overhead lifting might not be the best idea. See what your Doctor advises. Maybe time to ask for a different task if possible. Lead removal should definitely be done by highly experienced and competent Doctors. That is one circumstance that I and I am sure others are afraid of. However many folks have had it done without complications. Best of luck.
Mike

Agree

by Creaky - 2010-12-06 11:12:53

And don't forget that IF you have a choice, July and August when the new residents are still green and the senior staff is away on vacation, may not be the best time to have surgical procedures.Good luck.

Harry

Concerned

by SMITTY - 2010-12-06 11:12:55

Hello Bonnie,

I can understand why you would be concerned. My suggestion is that you follow your doctor's orders to the letter on what you can or cannot do. However, at 8 weeks your leads should be in place well enough that you will have no problems.

The death of your daughter's mother in law is one for the books. You say the death certificate says death due to accident. I guess everything has to be called something, but from what you tell us, to me it sounds more like manslaughter than accident. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. but I cannot believe that touching a nerve caused her to bleed to death.

My guess is her heart wall was punctured or ruptured when the lead was pulled away from it. Our leads are attached to the heart wall with devices designed to attach them to the heart wall and not come lose. After they have been in place for several years it is quite common for a laser cutting tool to be used to separate them from the heart wall.

I have never heard of an incident like this one but I have heard of the heart wall being punctured when a lead was being put in place. In those cases the Dr has a very few minutes to get in there and do a repair job before the patient bleeds to death. I wonder what happened to your daughter's mother in law. You say this happened at Emory University Hospital. Emory is another of the teaching hospitals and any time I hear of an incident like this I want to say, I wonder how much experience that resident had.

Maybe I'm a little too hard on residents but my wife will be undergoing her 4th surgery within the next few weeks because of a mistake by a resident almost 4 years ago. About a year ago I had a resident doing an epidural steroid injection on me for a back problem and I ended up with a dural puncture. With a dural puncture comes the headache from hell and it took me almost six weeks to get it repaired by a staff Dr. So if I sound hard on teaching hospitals and residents, I think my wife and I have earned that right. Of course I know Dr. have to be trained somehow, somewhere, but I think too many are awarded their wings and allowed to solo before they are ready to fly alone.

But your Dr is not a resident and I'm sure he will keep you on the straight and narrow, so listen to him.

Good luck to you,

Smitty

To concerned

by bonniesproul - 2010-12-08 08:12:41

Tank you for correcting me. It wasn't a nerve the Dr. cut it was a vein.Big difference.That's what made her to start bleeding and filled her chest cavity with blood and her heart collapsed.Thanks for your comment.

lifting

by Tracey_E - 2010-12-09 06:12:15

After 4-6 weeks the odds of pulling a lead out go down to next to nothing, you've got another 2 week cushion on top of that. Your dr sounds on top of things, 8 weeks is a perfectly acceptable time frame to allow you back to heavy lifting, after that we can do whatever we want without fear of damaging the leads.

As Smitty said, they don't just pull the leads out when they need replaced if they've been in more than a year. They use a specialized laser sheath to cut the leads away from the scar tissue that's built up. After a year, that's the only way to get a lead out. The odds of what happened to your daughter's mil are VERY small. In about 2-3% of the cases when they remove leads, the heart will be punctured and they have to do emergency open heart surgery to repair it. The odds of dying from it before they can repair it are small, so it's a small percentage of that 2-3%.

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I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for pacemakers. I've had mine for 35+ years. I was fainting all of the time and had flat-lined also. I feel very blessed to live in this time of technology.