80 bpm rate set up produced heart failure during more than a year

heart rate

by Cabg Patch - 2016-06-25 12:18:58

Many people do not realize any heart rate from 60 - 100 beats per minute is considered normal for the resting rate. mine in fact is 75-80 with or without pacing. It varies by individual just as the ejection fraction does. There are numerous reasons they may have chosen 80 for your mother, only the doctor can answer that, but to believe he is guilty of medical malpractice because he set hers at 80 would not even be considered by experts.

I'm happy to hear they adjusted her device to a rate that is more comfortable for her.

Heart Failure and pacing rate

by Selwyn - 2016-06-25 17:57:23

 There are many different causes and  types of heart failure. Without detailed knowledge of WHY your Mother developed heart failure it is not possible to say what is right or wrong. Certainly 80 beats per minute (bpm) is not an unreasonable rate given a normal heart and the rest of the body being good.  My resting pacemaker rate is set to 60 bpm though it rises to perhaps 100 bpm with exercise.

I am sorry to hear that there is distrust between you and your Mother's previous physician. Perhaps your present physician ( or your general practitioner) can explain previous treatments to you? It may help relieve some of your concerns. 

I have never heard of a case of deliberate harm using a pacemaker by a member of the medical profession. It is much more likely that there has been poor medical communication, or a misunderstanding, or lack of insight. 

In the UK ( in spite of the EU vote!) we still have a system of complaint- firstly to the hospital, perhaps to the ombudsman, or to the professional standards authority ( the General Medical Coucil). The emphasis of the complaints procedure is on reconciliation and understanding, and apology where necessary. I am unaware of whether France has such procedures.  

Kind regards,

Selwyn

80 bpm Heart Rate

by jwilson - 2016-06-26 15:21:21

Heart rate between 60-100 is normal. When I got my Pacemaker two and 1/2 years ago, they set my heart rate at 80 and I feel great. No problems. I am 70 years old.

Other details

by TooFast - 2016-06-26 20:52:47

Thank you for the answers, I'm glad to read 80 bpm rate is not as unusual as I thought.

The physician who operated my mother told us that the rythme would be dropped to 65-70 bpm.

The physician who dropped my mother for the first time said that good rate for a woman like my mother was 65-70 bpm. He said that 80 bpm was too fast and he was sure that reducing the rate would improve heart failure level. He was right. He told my mother to obtain an oxygen device immediatly and to use it 18 hours a day, forever.
But the next day, my mother breathed very good and heart failure had disappeared.
When Dr told took my arm and told me : "Thank you for taking care of your mother this way.", I thought he was convinced that my mother will be better in a short time.

The physician who replaced the "failing one" (Dr. John Doe) told us that good rythm for my mother was 60-70 bpm.

Some external elements convinced my mother of an intentional act :

- Dr John Doe operated my mother in 2014. A post-operatory hemorragy occured. The best friend of Dr John Doe, another cardiologist, refused to pump blood. My mother bleed a lot, and the blood dropped from the top of the leg to bottom. My mother had a foot like a balloon. She suffered a lot, a physician was very angry when he saw the "work", she phoned to the hospital to ask for explications. Dr John Doe was very worried about a trial.

- Dr John Doe had a very strange behaviour in september 2015 and march 2016. My mother was dying, with a big pulmonary edema. In years, he never told to my mother she had a heart failure. When my mother told me she was shocked by the Dr's behaviour, I thought immediatly the dr was doing somethind bad.

- My mother was very weak in september 2015, when she saw Dr Doe. He wrote to my mother's referent physician that she has an optimal life quality. SHe told me that Dr Doe was very ironic with her.

- When new Pope was choosen, Dr John Does decided to give the good news to cardiology patients. he irrupted in my mothers room, saying "We have a new Pope, we have a new Pope !". My mother is atheist.

In my opinion, Dr Doe forgot to drop the rate to 65-70 bpm, because after 6 months, symptoms of heart failure were mostly weaks and irregulars. At this moment, there was no medical error in my opinion.

But when he saw the disaster in september 2015, one year after installing pacemaker, he may have thought that dropping the bpm, my mother will be better... realizing the Dr's fault. So, he preferred to maintain the rate, to avoid a trial.

Medical files we obtained from the hospital showed a good adequation between my mothers health situation in the first 7 months. But in the last 7 months, he wrote was my mother was healthy.

My mother has some pathologies : flutter, atrial fibrillation and obstructive chronical pneumonitis.
Smoking make lungs hard, heart works more and more because of lung resistance and rigidity, flutter appears first, and at last atrial fibrillation. But heart failure was the consequence of the too fast rate of the device : with a good setting, heart failure and pulmonar edema disappeared since 2,5 months.

In february 2016, I told my sons their grandmother will probably die this year. And now, she's like 10 years ago !

Pacemakers are one of the greatest medical inventions.