St. Jude Defibrillator and pacemaker

Hello everyone, I had a St Jude Defibrillator and pace maker installed in Nov 2014. Never had a issue until yesterday. I was just at the cardiologist last week and checked my Defibrillator and stated I have a year/year and a half of battery power left. Yesterday I had a vibration when I sat down and thought it was the phone I sat on. Today it went off twice. Lasted 6 seconds and then after 2 seconds it vibrated again for 6 seconds. Called my cardiologist and he just told me to come into his office tomorrow. Does anybody know what causes this? Could it be a low battery warning? Or could it be a multiple of things?

4 Comments

vibration

by islandgirl - 2020-08-30 15:55:39

Look at the St Jude website, as it should explain the alerts.

alerts

by Tracey_E - 2020-08-30 16:43:16

I know some of them vibrate whenthe battery is low, but not sure which ones. I can tell you from experience that a year or so estimate hardly ever means a year. I'm on my 5th. I've had it say a year for a full year (so it lasted 2 more years), I've had it ready to be replaced a couple of months later.

Ask about your leads. sometimes the battery life estimate is just plain off,sometimes something else causes the faster depletion, like a lead aging. 

If this is your first, replacements are super easy. Most of the pain the first time was making the pocket, most of the restrictions were new leads. 

Same thing

by Benjijohn - 2020-08-30 16:51:43

I had the exact same thing happen to me with my St judes crtd. It turned out to be an alert that the battery life was running out. Then, they replaced it

Most probably your situation is the same. Some st jude pacemakers have this vibration alert. It signals that something is wrong with the pacemaker, and needs to be checked. 99% of the time it is the battery

Hope this helps. Wish you the best

Vibration

by AgentX86 - 2020-08-30 17:45:24

It means that something about your pacemaker (or you, I suppose) needs the attention of your cardiologist/EP .  He programs the alarm with important triggers to warn you that's something's wrong so that you seek his attention.  It's not likely to be a dire emergency but it's something that needs attention.

<https://www.cardiovascular.abbott/us/en/patients/living-with-your-device/arrhythmias/resources/understanding-patient-notifier.html>

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