outside body electrical shock

Accidently crossed and hit an electric fence and jolted me pretty good. I felt it shock inside of me where the pacer and wires are. My Bosten scientific pacer is in my abdomen and has epicardial leads. Im dependent but seem to be ok. Could this have harmed my pacemaker.?

 

Kay


7 Comments

Unlikely

by crustyg - 2019-09-07 02:06:58

Your PM has been designed to cope pretty well with external cardiac defibrillator usage - not recommended but it happens. 

A fencer unit typically delivers a much higher voltage at a much, much lower current - after all, if it were delivering the charge of an external defib it could kill you, and the owner and manufacturer's product liability would be terrible - they'd never sell.

So while a fencer is unpleasant to touch it shouldn't be able to do any damage to your PM.

If you have a Latitude remote monitoring system, you can call your EP monitoring team and ask them to permit a user-initiated interrogation to set your mind at rest.

Call your doctor immediately

by LifeTimePacer - 2019-09-07 02:07:21

Could it? Absolutely. Did it? No one knows. Please call your doctor immediately and get your device checked, that is the only way to be sure everything is working properly.

Highly unlikely

by AgentX86 - 2019-09-07 10:36:55

There is very little chance that you did any permanent damage but it's worth initiating a remote transmission just to put your mind at ease.  Call your PM tech and tell them what happened and that there is a transmission in the pipe.  They'll be able to look at it and tell you what to do next, if anything.  That's why we have the ability to initiate transmissions.  It's there to diagnose unexpected problems.

test

by ROBO Pop - 2019-09-07 14:07:26

By all means since lifetime thinks it could affect your device you should do some quick tests immediately if not sooner.

1. Get a local newspaper and check for your name in the obituaries. If you see your picture it could mean trouble.

2. Check your pulse. If there isn't one drive yourself to the ER right away

3. Hold your nose closed and cover your mouth tightly to check for breathing. If you ain't, release both mouth and nose and look for someone attractive nearby to give mouth to mouth.

Well there's more but that's probably a good start for a novice.

You are alive, functioning and feel fine, those are strong indicators all is well, but of course if you think you might be dead call your Cardiologist and download a report to him so he can send a clean up crew

Aw-w-w ROBO!

by Gotrhythm - 2019-09-08 14:12:31

Once again I must chide you for "popping off", before thinking your answer all the way through.

I'm referring to your second point. I disagree strongly.

Under no circumstances should a person without a pulse attempt to drive themselves anywhere.

What were you thinking?

* Terrible pun, I know. but couldn't help myself.

 

Thunder6: Don't worry.

by Gotrhythm - 2019-09-08 14:26:36

ROBO and I are joking because it REALLY is okay. But, I used to wonder about the effects of electric shock, too. I wasn't alone and neither are you.

Check the archives and you will see that our members manage to sustain electrical shocks with some frequency--bigger jolts than an electiric fence--without damage to their device.

Practice whatever level of caution feels right to you, but having any sort of effect from the electric fence would be very, very, very, very unlikely.

Robo and Gotrhythm - the least cautious doctors ever?

by LifeTimePacer - 2019-09-09 18:31:46

LOL - glad to hear people saying harm would be "unlikely" and not impossible, yet joking about my saying you should get checked. Can tell neither of you are Doctors (or lawyers, lol), but I got a kick out of that. Yes, harm is very unlikely, but the risk/reward of not checking is lop sided because there is no harm in checking, and in the unlikely event of a trigger to the device the downside is negative. 

You know you're wired when...

You can feel your fingers and toes again.

Member Quotes

I am no expert, but I believe that without the defibrillator that I have, I would be dead.