ICD Vibrates - Explanation

I received a St. Jude ICD this week and today is vibrated in my chest like a cell phone for about 2 seconds, then a pause, then it vibrated again.

I went to the cardologist and learned that the vibration was a warning signal that something was "out of tolerance/range" in the ICD. The St Jude rep went into settings and adusted the them. Seems that a parameter or two was not set correctly for my situation. The vibration pattern is a signal to call your cardiologist and have the device checked. I think a true hardware problem such as a bad lead would also trigger the vibration warning.

2 Comments

Really!!

by Jmiller - 2013-04-16 05:04:37

I just had my PM replaced with an ICD about 2 months ago and no one mentioned anything about a warning vibration. Seems like that would be a good think to tell people.

Thanks for the post
Jim

Cool vibrations

by mrag - 2013-04-22 04:04:08

Devices can vibrate to alert you. Rarely are they turned on. Would likely scare the **** out of me, but probably harder to miss than the quiet 'beeping' they are usually set for. My last battery beeped for 4 days before I realized what it was! You can also have your device "warn" you when it starts to charge just before POSSIBLY shocking you. My ep was against the idea as he felt it creates more fright than helps.

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