Dad has gone downhill after pacemaker

My dad has lost quality of life since he got his pacemaker. He can't walk for long without getting out of breath and his heart function has lowered from 40 to 20 percent. Has a lot of water retention and is now in hospital for 2nd time and given the DNR and hospice talk. We have all suspected the pacemaker is not working well for him. Have asked several doctors and finally the doc on call last night said that he would not have chosen this particular PM and that he could have a 70 percent chance of better life if a different one was used. This is so frustrating and he could die in meantime waiting for a diff one. My sister said she hadn't seen him perk up about anything until he heard that doc say that. I feel so bad for him. Anyone experience this or have a diff PM put in?

3 Comments

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by Tracey_E - 2017-12-11 12:40:11

I'm sorry that your dad isn't doing well.

Why did he get the pacer? What's the difference between what he has and what the new doctor thinks would work better? I really doubt the pacer is causing his current problems, it's more likely it's just not improving nor stabilizing. The pacer sends the message to the heart to beat, the heart has to respond by contracting. It doesn't beat for us, that's a common misconception. If the heart isn't contracting well- that's what they are measuring with EF- the pacer can't really control that. It can send more messages to beat, but it can't make the heart beat harder. I would imagine they've got him on medication also? The two work together. 

A 2 lead pacer will only make the heart beat faster so it will only be noticeably helpful if all of the pre-op symptoms were caused by a low rate. 

A 3 lead pacer will pace both ventricles and force them to stay in sync. Sometimes this combined with medictation to take the stress off the heart helps with EF, sometimes it can keep it from getting worse, sometimes it doesn't  make any difference. 

Good luck to you and your dad. 

Chf

by ROBO Pop - 2017-12-11 16:55:39

What you are describing is Congestive Heart Failure. In general a pacemaker isn't going to do a lot for that, but certainly putting one in isn't going to cause it to get dramatically worse. 

The only way a pacer would help is if his ventricles are asynchronous (not beating together) then a 3 lead CRT may help, but there is no guarantee. FYI I have one and my EF continues to be in the toilet and my feet slosh when I walk from all the fluid. 

yes

by jessie - 2017-12-14 18:51:35

lucky enough it helped me..i think i am one of the lucky onesin this world....jessie

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It is just over 10 years since a dual lead device was implanted for complete heart block. It has worked perfectly and I have traveled well near two million miles internationally since then.