Doglady's response

• by The Doglady
• 2013-01-04 12:01:32
• Complications
• 1227 views
• 1 comments

It was about midnight and I got up to go to the bathroom. After 4 steps I collapsed and knew instantly something was horribly wrong. My husband was going to pick me up and I kept saying call 911, when he turned on the light and saw I was gray and ashen, he called 911.

I was rushed to the hospital with heart rate of 25, blood pressure 60/40. I was literally dying. It was a horrible night. The ER staff had to keep giving me drugs to keep my heart beating and it was terribly uncomfortable, causing quite a bit of chest pain. I kept drifting in and out. About 3 am or so one of the cardiologists came and inserted a tiny temporary pacer through the femoral artery to stabilize me.

I was transferred to the ICU until a new pacemaker could be inserted later that day.

My original pacer was supposed to have about a year's battery life left as of 3 weeks before the catastrophic failure. None of the cardiologists in their collective years of practice had ever heard of that happening.

My cardiologist is Harvard trained and an exceptional physician.