Upon death - pacemaker donation

I'm in the process of redoing my Will and was wondering if anyone had experience with donating pacemakers after death.  I've read that they can be refurbished and used in dogs and that there is a program associated with the University of Michigan that sends them to impoverished countries.  I was wondering if anyone has any experience with setting up paperwork to assure this occurs and if it needs to be in my Will.  I'm a designated organ doner as well.

3 Comments

Pacemaker donation

by Gemita - 2024-06-16 12:30:31

Jacque, take a look at the following links.  We have had a few discusions about this in the past.

Remember too that the new owners of this Club, ForHearts, should be contacted for their advice too, since they have a longstanding history of saving lives around the world by providing pacemakers and defibrillators to those who cannot afford them, but I am not sure whether they are involved in pacemaker recycling, or might be in the future?   Please do send a private message to admin, or let us hope that they will see your message and respond directly to you.

Have a look at the first link, in particular, which gives a consent form;  and the Club discussions on this subject in links two and three.  The links will need to be copied and pasted into your main browser to open.  Yes your desire to donate your pacemaker if it fulfills the donation requirements in terms of battery life remaining (minimum  ?4 years), sterilization and so on, should be prominently placed in your Will and arrangements made to have your device removed before cremation/burial of course.

https://myheartyourheart.org/

https://www.pacemakerclub.com/message/42167/donating-used-pacemakericd-devices

https://www.pacemakerclub.com/message/41359/pacemaker-replacement

I hope these links will help you to recycle your pacemaker when the time comes.  In the meantime, I wish you a happy, healthy and long life.

Recycling

by piglet22 - 2024-06-16 12:55:05

Interesting read 

Of course not only at end of patient life but also with replacement.

Pacemakers and other implanted devices are described as single use and more importantly described as hermetically sealed.

I wouldn't want to attempt a definition of hermetically sealed but it's definitely an order of magnitude better than an IP 68 outdoor enclosure.

The electronics are probably in good shape, but some areas like memory get used up as well as the battery 

I would imagine that getting them apart and resealing would be quite difficult.

At a funeral, I did ask the funeral director about pacemakers and all he had to say was that they had to remove them because of the obvious explosion risk with cremation 

Animal donation is a possibility.

Personally, I would quite like to have a look at one out of curiosity 

I can quite imagine that there would be issues to do with clinical waste.

I'm always taking things apart to see how they work and harvest anything useful like screws. Surface mount components as used in pacemakers are almost impossible to reuse and never worth the effort of trying.

For UK members

by Gemita - 2024-06-17 03:24:45

For those living in the UK who are interested in donating their pacemakers, you can donate your cardiac device, or a loved ones' after they have passed away, by emailing:

info@Pace4Life.org

Also see the following links for more information:

https://heartrhythmalliance.org/aa/uk/programs/pace4life

https://heartrhythmalliance.org/aa/uk/programs/pace4life/faqs#:~:text=Yes.,use%20in%20LMIC%20since%201994. 

You know you're wired when...

Your pacemaker interferes with your electronic scale.

Member Quotes

You'll come to peace with it in time.