3 wire device, only 2 wires used?

I had a severe case of congestive heart failure in 2014 at the age of 48. The day I went to an Urgent care facility after feeling sick and weak for several weeks they put me in the hospital and within three hours i had one of two surgerys, a stint and a three wire CRT (boston scientific) device installed. The doctor who performed the surgery told me that he had only used two of the wires on the three wire unit with no real explaination why.

Last month at my cardio doctor visit i learned that my insurance no longer covered my current cardio doctor and was reffered to a new one. The new doctor informed me that my meds were not working and that i had over 500 episodes in 3 mos and that i needed surgery to hook up the third wire and scheduled surgery for me to do this in 10 days. He told me that my heart was only functioning at 15%.
The new doctor asked me "why didn't they use all three wires"?
and i told him i didn't know. I got the impression that he was in disbelief about the third wire ordeal. I'm scared and worried...
Does anyone know anything about this situation?

1 Comments

3rd wire

by Cabg Patch - 2016-05-11 03:05:27

Just one possible reason ...Sometimes due to our anatomy, or scar tissue, etc they cannot get the third wire into the artery in the back side of the left ventricle and have to use a different approach attaching a lead on the external surface of the heart muscle. I am facing that very possibility this Friday when they implant another CRT-D. The EP and I discussed it and what he said was that he would expend an hour attempting to place the lead. If at the end of that time he was unsuccessful, he would leave the third lead out and schedule me for a specialist to implant the lead subcutaneously.

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