medtronics icd shocking experience

Sorry this is so long, but need to vent. Posting this for my husband since he's in the hospital. Husband had a ICD implanted approx 1 year ago. Friday night he was working out of town and his ICD went off 39 times within 3 hours. He was taken by ambulance to a small local hospital and then transported to a larger hospital where a Medtronics rep came and turned it off. There was no indication that there was any cause for it firing. Husband overheard the cardiologist & rep talking that there were signs as far back as June of a problem. He did a reading in July and again the week of the incident, but we were never contacted. Hubby's been re-admitted back at 'home' hospital where he's waiting to have a surgery to fix the leads, which is what caused the mis-firing of the ICD Friday night. Thankfully, no permanent damage has been done to heart according to all the tests they've run, but now fear this may happen again. Not sure if it was defective equip or human error with the doctor. Has anyone ever heard of someone being shocked like this?

6 Comments

shocks

by luckyloo - 2007-10-10 01:10:03

yes, these are called "zap storms". this happened to my cousin. it was due to his settings set too low so they were all inappropriate shocks. i pray i never go through this. on a website called "the zapper" several people have written about this. it is a defib support group like this one except for defibs only.

you can type in "the zapper defibrillator support group" and you'll find it.

i hope your husband is feeling better soon.

luckyloo

medtronic icd shocking experience

by Judieanne - 2007-10-10 11:10:08

Hi there. I have another support group for ICD patients only. It is called ICDsupportgroup.org There are quite a few people on this site that have received storms such as the one your husband went through. I too have an ICD and have never had a shock. My defibrillator is 14 months old. Good luck. Judy

ICD Storms

by RonP16 - 2007-10-11 06:10:21

That's why it's good to have your ICD monitored and installed by an electrophysiologist, or an experienced cardiologist, for this eliminates the storms. I've had an ICD for six years, use mine 80% of the time, it's a dual pacemaker/ICD, and have not had a storm yet. I hope your husband gets well quick.

RonP16

Impedence

by dibs - 2007-11-13 08:11:56

Johns Impedence is set on the low end @ 200 and the high end @ 1,000 - his norm 450-700
actually today for that lead - if i am getting this right --
was 512 --
the Medtronic rep said this setting would help assure a zap storm as you all call them. Forgive me for a bit as I am not familiar with the lingo -- but working on it !!
pls feel free to correct when necessary -- thanks !!
are any of you going ahead and have the leads removed ?
or are you waiting ??

bad wire

by huskersnb2 - 2007-11-23 12:11:05

hello i have the bad wire my pm is shut off right now they say im doing fine with out it they say my heart was 15% now its between 40 and 45% with out any problems until my pm went off 8 times in one minute and 3 while i was seeing the doc he said i had a broken wire this happened on oct 11 then on oct 15 it was every where about the recall i was giong to get it fixed and just keep it there for safe keeping but now i don't know what to do sort of confused about the issuei go bac to the doctore in dec to see whats going on they have the pm on just to moniter my heart rythm only and it won't help me out if somerthing bad happens it won't shock me they say i will always have to take the pills i take 4 of them for the rest of my life thats fine with me i just don't really want to get shocked again becuase i guess i have a pacemaker and a defib thats why when i got shocked it was so bad of a experience for me these shocks are alot stronger is the way i understand it doc said i got shocked with 600 volts and thats alot for thaat short of a period so i know how the other people feel about it happy holidays and may god be with us all duane

leads

by papaknight - 2007-11-29 04:11:53

There is some concerns about leads migrating and perforating the heart causing a new set of problems. If you just put "ICD lead recalls" in, it should bring up the info. Glad to hear you have improved your ef..BOL
papaknight

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