Heart Stopped

Good morning,

Well I was up re reading all of the posting on this site looking for some input about heart stopping during implant prodcedure. My dear friend of over 45 years was recently taken in for an pacemaker implant due to diabetic complication, AF and other unknown diagnosis. During the procedure which we were told to take less that an hour ended up taking 3 hours + in surgery as heart stopped and was very slow to come back. Is this a normal occurrence?? I can't find out any info on this subject. The MD said she would have not made it another week. So we are blessed to still have her and with the pacemaker hope too for many more years too come. This is about the only place I feel comfortable asking for such info since most MD won't even answer this question nor do they tell patients this has happened.
Any imput would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks M&M


1 Comments

Heart stopped

by Pacemaker_pal - 2007-07-30 04:07:45

I am presuming that the heart beat actually stopped as this is the most common form in pacemaker implantation.

The patient is obviously having a pacemaker for an unreliable heart rate.When a patient has a slow heart rhythm there a small percentage that they can become 'Pacing Dependant'.They can rely on the artificial heart beat to easily and the natural heart beat does not want to come back.

This means that once the pacemaker is working the unreliable natural heart rhythm gives up because something better (the pacemaker ) has taken over. The natural heart rhythm is slow and if given the chance will happily have a rest if something else wants to take over.

during the implant the leads that have been placed in the heart have to be tested . At this point a temporary pacemaker which is outside the body is used to test the leads. This is just a temporary pacemaker to check everything is OK before implanting the real pacemaker inside.

Some people become Dependant on the pacing and therefore it will make the whole implantation difficult especially if they cannot wean the patient back off the pacemaker so that the real one can be implanted.

The doctors may not have been able to predict that the heart rhythm was so unreliable or that it was so ready to give up. This is probably why it took longer.

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