Battery life St Jude PM2240

St Jude Battery Life

by Stache - 2022-11-09 22:16:27

I have an Abbott (St Jude) 2072 dual chamber pacer inserted 02/08/2020. It had 10.5 years of battery life.  Last checked it was down to a little over 9 years left.  I have a home monitor and if I telephone Abbott they provide the current battery life as my pacer is Bluetooth.  I would recommend you contact Abbott directly as they track all of us users 24/7. (800) 550-1648 they just need your name and model number.  The tech people at Abbott are much better at explaining technical stuff like battery life.

Battery life

by Gemita - 2022-11-10 05:52:19

John, I see Stache has already given good info.  No, I agree it doesn't seem right since the average battery life is somewhere between 7-10 years, depending on manufacturer, model and use.  I am surprised that your technicians at the clinic haven't picked up on this since you have no doubt been attending regularly for your checks over the last 8 years?

While battery life remaining is only an estimate at any given time, and will naturally go up and down, it will become more accurate as the battery reaches its end of life and should certainly be showing some changes by now!  

i suggest you also speak to your doctors/clinic.  Have you noticed any changes in your symptoms or any new symptoms that might suggest your pacemaker is not working as well as usual, since if the pacemaker is nearing its end of battery life it will try to conserve energy and pace you at a steady rate, cutting out many additional helpful features you might have previously enjoyed.  So watch your symptoms too and report these to your doctors immediately especially if you are pacemaker dependent. 

Yes!!

by Tracey_E - 2022-11-10 09:58:20

It's a software glitch. I have the same model and the same thing happened to me. Odds are very high it's depleting normally, not staying the same every check, and that 9-10 year estimate is incorrect.

Mine showed 9-10 years from the time I got it in 2015 until last summer when it suddenly showed 2-3 years left. At first we thought it was part of the recall (rapid depletion) but it turns out it just wasn't updating properly. I had in person check where I think they did some software updates and they confirmed I've actually got 2-3 years left. Which is what I would expect it to be after 8 years. 

As a back up, they switched me to monthly instead of quarterly checks just to keep an eye on it. 

My doctor made multiple calls to Abbott when this first came up last summer to find out if it was happening to others. If your doctor has not followed up on it, ask them to please do so so you don't get any surprises. 

Thanks!

by Johnwoody - 2022-11-10 19:55:08

Thanks to Stache and Gemita for the suggestions and Tracey_E for confirming that I'm not the only one! I suspected a software glitch. I have an appointment coming up and I'll mention that at least one other person has the same issue! I was starting to get concerned as I'm approaching the expected end of battery life.

I suggest you make a formal complaint to the Medical Devices Agency in your territory...

by crustyg - 2022-11-11 06:53:52

which for you will be the FDA,  Sometimes the only way to get through to vendors is to set the regulator on them.  Software glitch not updating battery life correctly - probably doesn't really matter.  Lack of software quality assurance on a Class 1 device (==people's lives depend on it) - not acceptable.

We spend a lot of time on this forum reassuring folk that PMs/ICDs are incredibly safe and reliable, but this sort of nonsense undermines confidence.

Who knows what the FDA might find if they choose to send in the auditors.

Now reads as expected

by Johnwoody - 2022-11-11 18:58:41

I had an appointment today and the tech told me that my device has 2.7 years left. She said that remote readings were accurate but the in-person readings were not (obviously!). She said that that Abbott just released a patch, although it's hard to believe that it took over 8 years to fix it. But,at any rate, at least I know I've got some time before replacement is necessary!