Should I worry about airbags?

Just had a pacemaker implanted in August. Recently I drove to California from Colorado and got to thinking.... should I worry about airbags? I was told not to play "tackle football" but wouldn't the impact from an airbag be just as bad?

Thanks for any answers you may give.

3 Comments

Airbag/Steering column...

by donr - 2012-11-27 06:11:21

...it's a relative thing. Which would YOU rather impact on in the event of a head-on collision?

I suspect (& hope) you would choose the airbag. Here's why:

The steering column would be like hitting a closed off steel pipe end-on. The force would be concentrated on a circle about 4" in diameter - sort of a blunt spear.

The airbag was developed to inflate so large that it catches the entire upper body - chest, shoulders, head. It immediately starts deflating to "Soften" the impact - but still hurts like fire everywhere it hits. But at least it distributes the impact over the whole frontal area of the chest, etc. Much more desirable than taking that blunt spear in the sternum. Statistics show that people who take an airbag in the face have a much higher probability of survival than those who take the steering column. That's even w/ the PM involved.

If you're a passenger, the same thing goes for that airbag. Keeps you from sliding out from under the shoulder strap & rotating forward & doing a face plant into the dashboard or windshield. OUCH!!!!!

Oh, BTW - you DO wear the shoulder strap as it was designed, I hope. It takes a combo of shoulder strap & airbag to keep body & soul in the same location in the aftermath of a head-on.

Don

Air bags

by 082343 - 2012-11-28 04:11:01

I wear my seat belt just under my left arm when driving. I don't think my pacemaker could take an impact over my shoulder.....

You do WHAT!!!!!!?????

by donr - 2012-11-28 10:11:17

Wearing the shoulder strap under the arm is a death wish!

We wrote to 082343 about this back in August - AND he/she STILL WEARS THE SHOULDER STRAP WRONG??? To quote a lady in another thread - would you like a loaded pistol to hold to your head, also?

We already have a long thread on seat belts
Comment posted by donr on 2012-08-03 22:55.
Daisy: To preclude retyping what I said in that thread, I'll tell you how to get to it. It will tell you everything you need to know about seat belts.

The title is "Breaking the law."

Go to the top right corner of out home page & click on "Search." Type in "Breaking the law" & hit enter. The lead off post will pop up. Click on it & all the other comments will come up. Read away!

Bottom line - don't fight the problem - wear your seat belt.

Don

Also..
Comment posted by jessicya on 2012-08-03 23:11.

The cop that pulled me over made a good point. If a pregnant woman can wear a seatbelt we can to.

Oh and I got pulled over stopped at a light. And I had the seatbelt on correctly. Just pulling it; bad habit.

And in addition to Don's postings, I think it was last summer a mini van was hit by a drunk driver, the parents and 3 kids were killed. Not one was wearing a seatbelt and not one of them was found in the car. Their bodies were scattered across the parkway. Doesn't matter how safe of a driver you are. I would think with a seatbelt worst case the pacer or leads break. Easier to fix that then anything else you could imagine. And in that case it might be a good idea to have an ID bracelet or something in your car so paramedics know enough you have one and to take to a hospital with a PM clinic.






Thanks
Comment posted by daisy0388 on 2012-08-04 01:03.
Thanks for all the info and thanks Don for the thread I will read up on it, I have been wearing it but since my pm is new it is still very sore but I'm def going to go ahead and get the soft sleeve to put over the seat belt and an ID bracelet!

Seat belt control
Comment posted by 082343 on 2012-08-05 02:06.
I can only say that I wear my shoulder strap under my arm and when pulled over I show him my PM card and told him if I have a accident the strap would destroy my PM which is 100% pacing.....I chose to live.....hope that helps.....Some officers have no ideal what we depend on....

082343,You are harboring a DEATH WISH!
Comment posted by donr on 2012-08-05 12:05.
Let me start by telling you that the shoulder strap will not destroy your ICD. That little thing is encased in Titanium, which is used for deep submergeable vessels used in under water exploration. Further, it is encased in a nice cushiony layer of your sub-cutaneous fat. What WILL destroy it, along w/ your entire cardiovascular system in the chest is a steering column impaling your sternum. That's what the shoulder strap (& air bag) prevents.

If you are not an engineer, I'm not sure that this short explanation will make sense to you but I hope so - here goes: IF properly adjusted, the shoulder strap will be lightly held against your chest. In a head-on collision, the belt is locked so fast that the chest has but an inch or so before it comes to a stop against the belt. This means that the difference in velocity between your chest & the strap is still very small because the car has yet to slow down due to the impact collapsing all the sheet metal in front of you. Hence, you will feel RELATIVELY little force against your chest. (The force is proportional to deceleration, which essentially is the difference in velocity between you & the strap when you collide.) After the collision between the strap & your chest, you decelerate at the same rate as the car body, which is controlled by the collapsing of all that sheet metal in front of you. You are further helped by the air bag, which deploys at about the same speed as the shoulder belt locking. IT hits you in the chest/face at a distance (Hopefully) of about 24 inches. According to a friend who was hit by one expanding when he hit a guard rail at close to 60 MPH, it hurt like $#%@#$%%, but a lot less than the steering column would have. He walked away from his wife's Mercedes that was not just totaled, but demolished! The air bag, plus shoulder strap, keep the torso from impacting anything that would cause far more potentially fatal injuries. Like the steering column. Let's call it controlled deceleration. Further, if the shoulder strap does not constrain you, the air bag hits you in the face at about 6 inches from the steering column, which REALLY hurts, plus, it only has a shorter distance to slow you down before hitting the steering column. Not good.

In short, all this stuff is designed to CONTROL your deceleration to LESSEN damage to your body. It cannot prevent it completely, but it does mean the difference between walking away & leaving in a rubber bag on a gurney!

Any cop that takes your card as an excuse for not wearing the shoulder strap correctly is uninformed & NOT doing you any favors!

Don

Start copy & paste
082343, I want you to go to the top & find the thread on "Breaking the law." READ it. there is a debate over the validity of your erroneous belief about wearing the shoulder strap under your armpit! I have extracted the relevant comments here to make it easier for you. They start just below. Johnc wrote a comment just above mine that caused me to title my comment as..."Johnc is dead wrong."


Comment posted by donr on 2012-06-04 11:21.
Sorry about the strong language, but to put the shoulder strap UNDER the arm is just as bad as not wearing it.

In a head on impact, the upper torso will slide along the shoulder strap as if it were never there. The net result is impact w/ the steering column or dash board. If you are really lucky, the airbag will deploy & really smash up your face from a short range impact. A second potential disaster is the torso sliding along the shoulder strap, which will be locked by the impact sensing mechanism, and to the right (or left if you are in the passenger seat) & being directed into the center console of the dashboard, potentially causing more severe internal injuries from all the vital organs being squished together by the traumatic bending at the waist.

Just find a way to wear the shoulder strap - even if it is uncomfortable. Bottom line - St Peter doesn't give waivers because of discomfort to PM's.

NASCAR has even gone to the point of requiring head & neck protection after Dale Earnhardt's death a few yrs ago. IIRC, he died from severe neck trauma - EVEN though his 5 point suspension worked & protected the rest of his body.

In any high speed crash, the inertial forces on your own body can cause severe trauma - like the infamous "Whiplash." Lawyers love it; insurance co's hate it; it can be permanently debilitating and it is real.

Don



Looking at the wrong thing!
Comment posted by donr on 2012-06-05 00:33.
Fergedabout the legalities. St Peter does not care a whit whether you were legal or not. You arrive at the Pearly Gates & you are dead - no waivers.

Harsh reality - seat belts save lives. Seat belts+ shoulder straps save even more lives. Seat belts + shoulder straps + air bags save still more lives. My wife & I are a testament to these facts. You will get little sympathy from us.

Just suck down the short term discomfort & wear the strap.

You want more saving lives? I'm alive today because when my head went through a passenger door window & shattered the glass, I came out w/o a scratch because I was wearing a skateboarder's helmet courtesy of a wisecrack I made to my ER Doc Daughter about wearing one in the car because I'm on coumadin & she looks at me & says "Good idea, Dad!" So I wear the thing & I'm alive today w/o being a vegetable in a hosp bed!

I get more funny looks than you can imagine - especially from bikers. But I have the last laugh, always.

Don


I agree!
Comment posted by Many Blessings on 2012-06-05 00:59.

Always wear your seatbelt/shoulder strap no matter what.

I always wear mine, closepin and all. It's suicide not to wear one. A little discomfort is worth not flying through the windshield, so pull it on, click it into place, snap on your closepin or SoftTouch, and off you go.

seat position
Comment posted by turboz24 on 2012-06-05 23:25.
I'm lucky that my seat position and belt position places my belt on the inside of my implant (between implant and neck, otherwise I would be in this discussion also....

Now, my father's truck does irritate my ICD (belt rides right against the edge of my implant), but I find that this isn't a real problem as long as I don't drive with my left arm, I leave it down and drive right handed only. Also, I only drive it for short distances...

I will say that if I am in a serious accident, I fully expect the belt to tear that 1/16" of skin over that hockey puck sized titanium device.....

End copy & paste

seatbelts
Comment posted by Alma Annie on 2012-08-05 19:20.
As I live in Australia, I only have the problem when I am a passenger, but I have tried everything and it still feels sore. HOWEVER, many years ago I had a bad car accident, and it was so obvious that the seat belt saved my life. It is law here to wear them. Some discomfort surely is better than losing one's life, or being badly maimed. Also if the pm is damaged one can always have a replacement.

I am sure you will get used to it after a while. All the best.

Alma Annie

wear the belt!
Comment posted by blane on 2012-08-05 23:24.
I am a former paramedic, now have a pacemaker, and from my experience, WEAR THE BELT! The chances of dying in an accident without the belt are so much higher than the chance of it causing a pacemaker problem. Look at it this way: Are you better off alive but needing your pacemaker replaced, or dead with a perfectly functioning device? Wear it!

Don

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