Leads pulled out

I recently discovered in February that i had neurocardiogenic syncope. Doctors believed that I had epilepsy since i was five years old but all this time my heart was stopping for 20 seconds or longer. My heart doctor told me it was very rare in fainting disorders. I am thankful that it was finally figured out but I have questions. I had a dual chamber pacemaker put in in February, everything was great at first, but after a week or so I started to feel very sick and i told them about it and they "weren't concerned", I followed all of the directions (don't raise arm above heart level, carry more than five pounds, etc.) well both my leads were pulled out of place and I had to go in again to get them fixed but when i woke up they had informed me that they had to extract the atrial lead and replace it. my question is, how likely is it to happen again ? I am very scared and my heart doctor was mad at me even though I followed all of the instructions. I am 21 years old and very confused about this situation. Thank you

4 Comments

Totally agree

by japandata - 2015-05-05 11:05:23

I couldn't agree more with AngrySparrow. Some doctors will place the blame on you when they were the ones at fault. It took me a long time to find my doctors. They're just people, and people who sometimes don't look after their patient's best interests.

I would suggest you get a second opinion from a different doctor. Weakly connected leads can be detected by the resistance recorded on your pacemaker's histogram. It should be a quick office visit.

Go with the person who will give you some some time to talk. They are gold and increasingly rare.

leads

by Tracey_E - 2015-05-06 08:05:02

It's highly unlikely anything you did caused the lead to move. It's also unlikely it's anything he did, esp if they ended up trying a different type the next time. That says the first one wasn't compatible with your heart. The most common causes of leads moving are heart shape made it hard to get a good spot, heart wall didn't like the type of lead they used, and bad luck. I find it unprofessional that he was mad at you.

Not to contradict someone with a medical degree, but the sling is a very bad idea. If you don't move the arm, you can end up with shoulder problems. There have been studies that show patients with no restrictions at all- raise the arm and lift what they want- had not higher incident of dislodgement than patients with the traditional restrictions. My dr said that it's all just precaution after the first 24 hours.

Ok, food for thought... if it was your fault the lead didn't stay in place, why did he have to go to another type of lead the second time? If it was something you did, he could have just put it back where it was. The point I'm getting to, and this is just my opinion and I could be totally off base, the sling sounds like he's punishing you for moving too much but the evidence is you just needed a different kind of lead. I've never heard of giving any of us that extensive a sling, usually it's just a regular over the shoulder sling, and we're only told to use it for 24-48 hours.

I don't know for sure, but I believe the mri-safe leads are thicker and more difficult to place.

Medtronic

by ShannonMarie33 - 2015-05-06 12:05:31

He is a electrophysiologist. I had thoughts that maybe he knew but didn't want to say anything but I didn't want to point fingers and its confusing because he cared very much about how I felt because the episodes happen mostly with my anxiety and needles, he would make sure I was comfortable, which is why I was pretty shocked when he said he was mad at me, this has been very hard for me and that just made me even more nervous to mess it up a second time. He has me in a slang that wraps tightly around my back my instructions now are to wear it for a week and sleep in it for 8 weeks, it is very uncomfortable but if that's what I have to do to not go through that again I will gladly do so which I have been since thursday that is when I got the lead extracted. I updated my member profile. The card says Medtronic and that I have a Advisa DR MRI SureScan Pacemaker. The model is A2DR01 The atrial lead was replaced with a whole different type and route and the ventricle lead stayed the same . Thankyou both.

Can anyone recommend a high volume lead replacement surgeon

by Ping - 2015-06-28 06:06:30

Dr. advises my lead must be replaced due to cracked insulation, but we are having trouble finding success rates for MD's on the east coast who specialize in lead replacement. We live in Jacksonville FL area but are willing to travel to John Hopkins in MD in need be to improve the outcome. Any suggestions as to how to find good information?

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