Touring Musicians with a Pacemaker

Hi there.

I've only just joined this group - because until Tuesday morning, I had no need to.

I'm 42, from the UK and I work as a touring musician - principally a guitar player. It's what I love, and I'm so lucky to have made a career out of playing music and touring the world. Last Sunday I played the last show of an Australian tour (which was fantastic) and started to feel exhausted. A few hours later I was in the ICU covered in wires and drips and had received CPR twice already, my heart having stopped for around 30 seconds each time.

I have a Pacemaker now which I'm slowly getting used to, the pain from the surgery is easing. But for me the big change is still to come - taking the required considerations when performing live, especially when playing an electric guitar, using giutar and bass amplifiers, RF transmitters and power amps and PA speaker stacks.

I contacted Boston Scientific, the manufacturors of my particular PM, for some suggestions and some advice.

I thought it worth sharing with this forum in case anyone else had the same queries as me.

Feel free to download a PDF of my email here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1e-UYGBN7JBSaQb6Qht9r_MDSSE_l6pKY

Hope this is of use. If anyone else has any good suggestions for me I'd love to keep this message thread open for some discussion about dealing with similar situations.

All the best. Thanks for having me in the group.

Rob x

3 Comments

Music stuff

by AgentX86 - 2020-03-12 23:18:06

Welcome to the group and I hope you'll hang around.  This is a good bunch of people and there is always someone dropping in to ask questions or need a shoulder.  The more here to help, the merrier.

The only thing in that list that could posssibly cause a problem are the speaker stacks but then only if you sleep on them.   The rare-earth magnets in some speakers can trip a magnetic sensor in your PM.  It's not something that would be dangerous, just make the pacemaker perform suboptimally.

The rest of that stuff is perfectly safe to use around your pacemaker.  Lawyers tend to be buzkills and over-protective of the bottom line. Go ahead make music.  Forget that you have a pacemaker.  The reality is that it won't change your life in any significant way unless you make it.

Thank you!

by grovesnor - 2020-03-13 05:01:41

What a lovely response. Thank you so much. 

I'm certainly here to hang out and get to know others in a similar or dissimilar situation - a group like this is just what I was looking fora thanks again, that's  just the response I was hoping for. 

Best wishes 

Rob x

Agreed

by Good Dog - 2020-03-13 14:31:12

Welcome. I would just like to reiterate what agentX86 wrote. I have had my PM for 33 years and it has not changed my life in any way. We had the main door at work (before I retired) secured with rare earth magnets. I was always concerned by those damn magnets, but learned over time that they had no impact on my PM as long as I didn't lean directly up against them. I walked past them multiple times per day. I have worked around high voltage switch gear, high horsepower synchoronous motors and even walked around (within a foot) of a huge generator in the Niagara Falls generating station. Now, I am not recommending any of those things, but never a problem.

So the point is; just get on with enjoying your life! The pacemaker; Not to Worry!

Sincerely,

David

You know you're wired when...

You have a dymo-powered bike.

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Yesterday was my first day mountain biking after my implant. I wiped out several times and everything is fine. There are sports after pacemakers!