Using welding and cutting equipment with a pacemaker

Welding

by piglet22 - 2024-09-29 20:33:53

Hello 

Search the forum for PM members with welding experience.

Any type of electric welding is going to be fairly high up the take care list.

Welding

by PortCityPacer - 2024-09-30 01:03:59

My cardiologist told me before my implant that I would have to give up electric welding. I joking told her if she had seen my welding that giving it up would be a good thing. In the PM owners manual it clearly states not to use an electric welder so ended up giving my wire fed welder to my brother so I wouldn't be tempted to use it.

Not as bad as you've been told.

by Theknotguy - 2024-10-05 12:10:51

I'm eleven years in and on my second pacemaker. Post getting my first pacemaker the hospital gave me a sheet with ten items not to do with a pacemaker. Four of the suggestions were completely wrong and the other six were partially wrong. So much for the "good" advice.

Volunteer in a woodshop making furniture for indigent people so have a chance to get into situations most PM people don't go. Found out a lot of the suggestions regarding high powered electrical devices and pacemakers are wrong too. Ended up drilling over a hundred holes with my pacemaker lying on top of a high powered drill. No problems. When I finally figured out I was doing it, muttered I shouldn't be doing this and shifted my position. No problems with the pacemaker and nothing showed up on the reports. The two biggest problems I've had working in the wood shop are: 1)Pacemaker pocket gets sore from repeated moving of wood products. 2)Reciprocating saws or heavy vibration makes my pacemaker think I'm running and kicks up my heart rate when I don't expect it. A big head rush but nothing else has bothered my pacemaker. 

As for moving heavy stuff. Hospital person told me there was a lifetime limit of something like lifting 27 pounds on the pacemaker side. Asked where that information came from and she couldn't tell me. Literally walked down three flights and talked to the security guy who had a pacemaker. Said he lifted weights as exercise and finally broke a lead after lifting 300 pounds. Knew he was pushing the limits and had to get an immediate lead replacement. Since I can't lift anywhere near 300 pounds I don't worry about tossing wooden parts around. Besides the rib they busted doing CPR will complain a lot sooner before my pacemaker will give out. 

Over the years members on this forum have reported about welding and pacemakers. Consensus of opinion was to make sure everything is well grounded. Be very careful. Don't have current travel through your body. Yes, you are on your own when it comes to welding or not but you don't need to be terrified when being around welding equipment. I don't weld but grabbed a live 110 volt line ang got a wake up call. Didn't bother my pacemaker.

I stay away from those large industrial magnets used for lifting steel scrap. Wouldn't get near them anyway. I'm also careful about those rare earth magnets. The kind you get in a small box and then you have to use a pry bar to get them apart. Don't let those magnets get anywhere near my pacemaker but have used them in the past. Just make sure they don't get closer than six inches to my pacemaker.

Oh yeah, got the lecture on the equipment used for security checks. Was concerned at first but I volunteered at a hospital and had to push people in wheelchairs through the security stuff. Did that four or five times a day and my pacemaker never complained once. So I don't worry about that any more.

Main points here are medical people who don't know anything about equipment are likely to tell you no rather than risk being sued. The fact they don't know that much about pacemakers and even less about equipment means they give you overly cautious advice. And, of course, the risk of being sued for bazillions of dollars means the manufacturers are going to be very conservative in their comments. So bad information just gets repeated over and over. 

Nurses only learn enough to get you out of the hospital. EP's don't have time to explain and they usually don't know about equipment anyway. As I said before bad information gets repeated over and over. Now I'm going in for my check ups and telling the nurses what they need to be doing. "Hey, lady, I've got the pacemaker and live with it 24/7. You don't!"

Had a situation where I ran out of air while walking a 400 foot back hall. Got to the point where I could point to the brick in the wall where I'd run out of air. Talked to my EP. A bunch of exhaustive tests. Found out I'm doing more than most PM owners. (No surprise there.) Second thing was my rate control wasn't set right. EP had the pacemaker manufacturer rep change the settings. Guy said something about the gazorp wasn't set right for me and did I mind if he changed it. Nope, and now I can walk  down the hall and mow my lawn without running out of air. 

Hope this helps. Make sure you check things out before you do the deed. You just don't have to walk around being scared all the time. Life is good with the pacemaker.