Diving With a Pacemaker

Nice to meet you all.
I read with interest your comments on scuba diving with a pacemaker. I suffered with atrial fibrillation and athletes heart and destroyed my sinus node and other sparking nodes in my heart.
My cardiologist was amazed that presenting with a BP of 125/150 I didn't have a heart attack or stroke. Just lucky I guess.
She told me not to do anything much for three months. Two weeks after my op I felt so good I went for a two hour crab freedive and loved it...felt like I had an outboard motor on my fins. However, I have been cautious about scuba depth...have been to about 35 feet briefly and felt fine. Does anyone have any experience with a Biotronic or any opinions?

2 Comments

Two directions

by Theknotguy - 2014-11-27 09:11:10

You can go two different directions. One is to go to the search button on the upper right corner of this forum. Key in scuba/SCUBA and see what you get. Second is to go to SCUBA magazines, see if they have forums and ask there. I feel other scuba divers with PM's would be willing to chime in. If you directly contact members on this forum who have indicated they are diving maybe they can give you some answers. Also don't know if members who are scuba diving are still active, so you may not get an immediate reply.

Question in my mind is not necessarily the depth but what happens if your afib kicks in? The old joke about scuba diving is either 1) you are OK, 2) you are drowning. Since you are in a very physically stressful environment, how will that affect your heart problems? How will the heart problems affect your diving? Will you survive?

I'm thinking members who have been diving usually have minimal heart problems and are otherwise physically active. That allows them to be very active with a minimum of risk. For those of us with more problems, extreme sports are pretty much out of the question.

Having afib myself, I would question what you would do if you were 35-50 feet down, had an afib session, went into a panic mode, and decided to skyrocket to the surface. On dry land, when I go into afib, I get that suffocation feeling because my heart doesn't get enough oxygen to the rest of my body. Being 35-50 feet down, having to rely on equipment, and already getting that suffocation feeling - ??? I'd question what I would do. But then I'm not an experienced diver.

Next question is if you go into a panic mode, skyrocket to the surface, what effects will the bends have on your body and heart? Having compressed nitrogen expand in heart tissue that is already stressed may have tragic results. I've heard you can suffer from the bends in as little as 20 feet. But I don't know if they were accurate in their statements, trying to impress me, or trying to scare me. Perhaps snorkeling would be a safer alternative?

Personalities such as yours aren't going to be happy unless they're living on the edge. But, for the immediate future, I'd stay on the conservative side until I had more facts from people who have been there and done that.

Hope your recovery continues to go well.

call

by Tracey_E - 2014-12-02 12:12:17

Every device is rated to a different depth. If you call the manufacturer, they can tell you about yours. My St Judes is tested to 7 atmospheres which is about 198 feet in saltwater.

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