Natural Death with a Pacemaker

Pacemaker vs ICD

by joy1 - 2008-05-20 07:05:08

hi Bonnie,

With either device, you can have them turned off. I have had this discussion with my doctors because while researching, I read some terrible stories. It's because of some of those terrible stories that doctors everywhere pretty much agree that 1) if a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order is in place an EP can be requested to turn off a device. 2) if there is no order you should get a legal Power of Attorney (POA) or a DNR order in place. 3) if the person is incapable of assigning POA or consenting then get a court order.

Most doctors will agree to shut off a device if it is appearant that a person is in end stage, on hospice, or otherwise near death. Just make sure you get it in writing before it becomes necessary. Watching a loved one suffering from natural age or disease progression is hard enough. Watching them suffer needlessly is terrible pain.

Joy

Death With A Pacemaker

by SMITTY - 2008-05-20 10:05:19

Hi Bonnie,

Our heart is not an island unto its own. Many things must happen in our body in unison for our heart to continue working. I'm not learned enough to be able to be more specific, but say your brain shuts down, the heart will no longer be getting signals from the brain that would keeps it going.

A pacemaker is designed to stimulate the heart to beat when it can't beat fast enough on its own. Some pacemakers are working 100% of the time while others stimulate heartbeats only occasionally. Each patient with a pacemaker is different but most don't even realize it when the pacemaker is stimulating a heartbeat. If your mother were to have a large heart attack, it's doubtful a pacemaker would artificially prolong her life. A pacemaker would only prolong life if her heart rhythm would be too slow - which is an unusual cause of mortality in patients with a heart attack. I would suggest that you speak with
the cardiologist who monitors her pacemaker about what its purpose is in her and how
dependent she is on the pacemaker function.

The pacemaker can keep firing into dead cardiac tissue until the generator (battery) is depleted. From what I can learn a pacemaker can, at best, keep us going an additional few hours. As mentioned there are many organs in the body that must also function too keep us alive. For example should the kidneys or liver fail our body will die although the pacemaker is still sending impulses to the heart chambers for them to contract but the signals from other parts of the body are not there so those chambers are not gong to contract. The electrical impulse from a pacemaker is strong enough to make our heart beat, but is not strong enough for us to feel those impulses after a person has died.

Talk to your doctors about this, but I do not think you have to be concerned about your mother not passing away with dignity even though she has an operating pacemaker.

I wish you and your family the best,

Smitty

MISUNDERSTANDING

by peter - 2008-05-21 03:05:54

A pacemaker only asks the heart chambers to beat. It does not, and cannot "force" them to beat if they dont want to. So if your heart has had enough of life on planet earth it will just stop. For those of us who are pacemaker dependant and have had for instance an AV node ablation, turning off the pacemaker would result in a peaceful death within 30 seconds. Cheers Peter

pacemaker when dying

by TBrous&Chip - 2016-10-02 22:48:37

I just added this to my advance directive to turn off the pacemaker.

Also there is a donation program to 3rd world countries for used pacemakers through University of Michigan My Heart Your Heart program. I also added this to my advance directive to donate my pacemaker.