Lead fracture

i am currently on my second device. A biotronik implanted over 2 years ago. This replaced my original Medtronic device which I received in 2010, when it reached the end of its battery life. When they did the swap, they 're used the original Medtronic leads. A week ago I received a jolt from my ICD while at work. it knocked me off of my feet. No warning. Not pleasant. I had never experienced my ICE firing previous to this. I assumed it fired for cause. Well a 911 call and an ambulance ride later, I'm in the ER. It fired again. No more pleasant than the first time. The Biotronik del arrives and connects to the device..... Finds fractures in 2 leads which caused the unnecessary shocks. He turned off the defibrillator lead and the bottom pacemaker lead. Kept me overnight to monitor me. Good me that I should be fine until they can replace the leads. They called today and scheduled the lead extraction and replacement in 3 weeks. Also told me that my insurance would not be billed. Medtronic was paying for it since it was their leads. This makes me suspicious. I sense that Medtronic is essentially admitting fault. The leads are just over 8 years old. Was told they should last 12-15 years. I know a while back that Medtronic had some leads recalled but that was prior to 2010 when mine were implanted. It just seems odd that they  are so quick to pay. Anyone else have a similar experience with medtronic? 

1 Comments

cost coverage

by ZeldaMSW - 2019-03-03 10:06:33

It's pretty typical in my experience - to have the company responsible for the faulty device - pay for the cost of repair and replacement. 

 

I did have the faulty recalled leads - and did get shocked unnecessarily from the break - not fun. - Medtronic paid for the cost of the replacement leads - but not the entire cost of the surgery as I recall. 

Next device was a Boston Scientific -  That device lasted 6 weeks before failing for reasons no one ever told me.  -  I was shocked twice by that when the techs were messing around with the settings. - That time Boston Scientific paid for a new device.  I went back to Medtronic.

 

Good luck!

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The pacer systems are really very reliable. The main problem is the incompetent programming of them. If yours is working well for you, get on with life and enjoy it. You probably are more at risk of problems with a valve job than the pacer.