Posted by Lawrence Skipper on September 16, 2001 at 22:54:58:
A doctor/dentist friend of mine told me at dinner last night that his sister in law had a (she called it) implanted cardioverted defibrillator. According to the story she had it surgically implanted approximately three years ago (as a test patient) and it has just been approved. I was told it was implanted by a Dr. Schwartzman in Pittsburg PA. Supposedly it has three leads. Two going to the atriums, and one to the ventricle. My friend said she could control shocking herself if she had AF, however the devise would activate a shock on its own if she was in vertricular fibrillation. He said the Mfg. of the devise was Medtronics. I am familiar with them since I recently purchased 3 of their LIFEPAK 500 Automated External Defibrillator's for my offices and my home. I checked out their web site, and could find nothing. Have any of you ever heard of such a thing where one could shock themselves if they were in AF??? I am going to be 69 in November, and have been converted 13 times in emergency rooms over the past 6 years. Twice with electro cardioversion and the rest of the times with chemicals. Primarly Corvert/Ibutilide. If such a devise was under test, I would have to assume the self imposed shock for AF would have to be drastically lower than the automatic shock for Ventricular Fibrillation. I would appreciate any information anyone has. Thanks. I have been reading this board since its inception, however, it's my first post.
- Re: Implanted Cardioverted Defibrillator Lizzie Hyatt 19:59:02 8/09/2004 (0)