Lead infection after a month

I am the parent of a 2 1/2 year old that required a pacemaker due to extreme breath holding spells in which he was losing hisheartbeat for 8-25 seconds at a time. We were shipped from Providence to Boston to have the operation just over a month ago. Last week, he developed a fever and we brought him into the pediatrician. Tests were conducted and he was prescribed an anti-biotic. Everything was going well, fevers were dissipating and he was happy, we thought we were in the clear. We had a follow-up on Monday this week, and we were promptly admitted into the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. We were told that our son had developed an infection on the pacemaker leads. We are so frustrasted! Operation is scheduled for tomorrow to remove the pacemaker and leads. How could this happen? Bad practice, poor sterilization of the OR....? Has anyone experienced something like this, what should we do, what can we do?

That felt good, a little venting just eased my mind a little bit!

2 Comments

thank you

by mchebert78 - 2012-04-27 03:04:05

Thank you bigheart1, we have also been told that the children typically grow out of breath holding spells around 3-4yrs old. We sure as heck hope so, it takes so much to watch him while it is going on, very scary as you sure know.

Thank you for your kind words, take care!

sad in maryland

by bigheart1 - 2012-04-27 11:04:06

my daughter who is now 28 years old also had breath holding spells when she would get upset, pass out and then be very limp like it took everything out of her. She was two when finally diagnosed at children hospital in DC. We were told to just make sure she did'nt get so upset, and that this would go away when she turned 3 years old as quickly as it came. And they were right ! Just before she turned 3 years old, the breath holding spells went away and never returned to this day ! Thank god !

I hope this will help you ! Take care and god bless

You know you're wired when...

You can hear your heartbeat in your cell phone.

Member Quotes

The pacer systems are really very reliable. The main problem is the incompetent programming of them. If yours is working well for you, get on with life and enjoy it. You probably are more at risk of problems with a valve job than the pacer.