leads

I don't know how many saw the article in the Wall Street Journel today about the failure of the Medtronic leads. It concerns the leads used with the ICD. According to the paper there have been 5 deaths realated to this lead failure. I called Medtronic and they said they have had 665 failures out of 268,000 in use. The paper said they have had a failure rate of 2.3%, so I don't know who is right.

3 Comments

leads

by lindalouwho54 - 2007-10-15 10:10:26

I saw the AP article on it .... I have one of the affected leads. Will be calling my doc in the morning to find out what happens next. Hopefully a little reprogramming will do the trick!

Leads

by scpck - 2007-10-16 05:10:07

My sister phoned me in the wee hours yesterday morning when she read this. Told me to get to the ER cause I would die if my "pacemaker" went off. She has a copy of my information on brand, leads etc, but didn't bother to check. On the one hand it was nice she thought of me. On the other I really needed to sleep a little beyond 345.
I think the general public has NO idea of the difference between ICD and Pacer. I know I didn't and Im a nurse. I thought all pacers gave out a single rate. Go figure. No one ever said otherwise.

MRSNO1MAX

by MRSNO1MAX - 2007-10-18 03:10:15

My name is Nancy and I have one of the affected leads. I had an alblation in April 2005 and a pm/debib implanted. I'm pacemaker dependent. I readed about the news on Medtronic and my husband called them and they said that I needed to be checked so I called my doctor and he wasn't in any hurry to see me and said that I have an appointment on the 26th. I'm a little concerned thinking I have been thru enough and to lose now would be terrible.

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At age 20, I will be getting a pacemaker in few weeks along with an SA node ablation. This opportunity may change a five year prognosis into a normal life span! I look forward to being a little old lady with a wicked cane!