COVID-19 and Pacemaker

Hi everyone,

I've been doing some reading, listening and watching about how the COVID affects you (isn't that the ONLY thing the entire world has done for the past month?)

It can affect the electrical system of your heart if you contract it.  Here's my question:  If it can potenitally affect the electrical system of your heart and you have a pacemaker, wouldn't that mitigate that potential problem?  My reasoning (with NO scientific background to personally draw from) is that if your electrical is messed up and you have a pacemaker and COVID interferes with that system, it would be moot because the pacemaker is there to address that.

Know what I mean?  Or am I being too simplistic with my assumptions and conclusions?

Thanks,

Richard

2 Comments

yes and no

by Tracey_E - 2020-04-14 20:42:37

If we get new electrical problems, yes we already have the pacer to fix it. However! From what I've heard, the problem is more likely to be the heart stopping short term, survivors may have damage to the heart going forward. We don't need any more heart damage when we are starting off with problems already. I have no idea if having underlying problems makes us more likely to arrest. Perfectly healthy, young, athletic people die from this so IMO, everyone is high risk. I didn't consider us to be higher risk at the beginning, but I'm changing my mind on that. Doesn't matter tho, high risk or not, no one should be going out and about right now. If you get it, you can die. Period. Our risk of dying may or may not be higher than someone the same age and health who doesn't have a pacer, but I'm not taking chances catching it and finding out. YMMV

Death with Covid-19

by Selwyn - 2020-04-16 08:13:35

What kills people is organ damage either viral or from your body's reaction to it.  Whilst pneumonia may eventually destroy the lungs, all of the body is affected by the virus and the immune response to it.  If your heart turns to mush, no amount of electrical stimulation is going to make that mush contract. 

If you want the gory details see:

https://theconversation.com/how-does-coronavirus-kill-130864

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