I lost my old device!!!

I had my very first ever pacemaker, and I carried it with me everywhere as a good luck charm... the last time I had it was for a genetics test I took in school, and now I can't find it. :( I only have a plastic model now.

I tried to get my second device back from the hospital but they told me they could only give me a model because the real one was a bio hazard, and they keep them to check for problems etc.

anyway I'm super upset that I can't find my first one, I just needed to vent about it to people who would probably understand.... :( Hopefully I find it somewhere, but as of yet I haven't seen it, and this was a few weeks ago.

7 Comments

You Were Lied Too

by SMITTY - 2011-03-22 11:03:53

Look at the definition of biohazard. "Biological hazards, also known as biohazards, refer to biological substances that pose a threat to the health of living organisms, primarily that of humans." Now let me ask you a couple of questions? You are a human aren't you? Second question, where did you have that pacemaker if not in your body? Last, but not least, that pacemaker is not a biological substance, it is a metal, titanium to be exact.

Now for the truth of what is going on. Used pacemakers cannot be reused in the U.S., but the can be refurbished and sold for implanting in humans in Third Word Countries, especially the Far East.

I think you can now see why they told you such blatant lie.

Smitty


Smitty-old PM

by Jaybee - 2011-03-23 03:03:18

I asked my EP last month wheather PMs are refurbished and implanted again.He said it cannot be redone and hence not reused.He also said to his knowledge it is not done anywhere,defenitely not in India.

He also told me mechanical heart valves are also not tranplanted.He is from one of the reputed hospitals here,where heart,liver,kidney transplants are done, run byChristian Missions.

Jaybee

(I have PM and mechanical valves done in the same hospital)

pm

by Shell - 2011-03-23 04:03:09

When I had my PM changed last summer I asked for the old one. When they gave it me it was in a bio-hazard bag. they had cleaned it but when i got home I wiped it down with a clorox wipe and now I keep it in a ziplock bag.

Is Your PM A Biohazard

by SMITTY - 2011-03-23 07:03:47

This is kind of funny and I'm not laughing at you Shell. It is just how one thng can lead to another.

The doctor removes the pacemaker from your body, hands to an assistant who cleans it with soap and water, then because hospital doesn't have a ready supply of small grocery bags, they put the pacemaker in the only container available, which just happens to have BIO HAZARD printed in big red letters on it and gives it to you. You take it home and do a real sterilization job on the PM with the bleach and then store it in a sealed container. Which you shoud have done.

Now let's go back a second, that PM had come from your body, so if it had any "little bugs" on it they would have been your bugs. Also, by giving you that pacemaker to you in a container marked BIOHAZARD they broke a whole bunch of laws, That is unless you happen to be certified to accept and dispose of hazardous waste. I guess handing them out in bags marked bio hazard is standard procedure but I wonder if anyone ever stopped and thought about what they were doing.

I asked for an got my old PM and the hospital did the same thing for me. They gave it to me in a bio hazard bag, but I took it out of that, gave the bag to the nurse and put the PM in my pocket. I explained to her there was no way I was going to take that bag out of the hospital with something it. I knew if someone noticed I had that bag with something in it, I would have been stopped until it was determined that it was not hazardous material and that I had a right to have it.

Some times in an attempt to help people, without thinking they can run the risk of causing us more problems than we really want. So I have a suggestion for those of you that will be getting your old PM after a replacement. Take a baggie with you to put it in and don't worry about it being a hazard.

Smitty


Rebuilt Pacemakers Are Used

by Juan - 2011-03-23 12:03:44

Jaybee,
Smitty is right on this one and your doc is a little off base. See below.
Just think of the value of a used PM which can run from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
Juan

By John Casey | October 12, 2009
There’s no sense in throwing out pacemakers when their original owners are done using them. A new study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology followed 12 heart patients at the University of Philippines who were implanted with refurbished pacemakers that had been taken from people who died in the Detroit area. The people who got the pacemakers “survived without complications from the devices,” according to a case series reported by the University of Michigan Cardiovascular

For an article on using refurbished pacemakers in the poor in India take a look here - http://www.ipej.org/0401/anil.htm

See the article at http://cogprints.org/4235/
from the Indian Pacing and Electrophysiology, Journal - Dated Mar 11, 2011 for more on the subject.

Rebuilt PM

by Jaybee - 2011-03-25 08:03:09

Juan,
Thanks for information. I want to donate my body for cadaver transplants,in that context I asked this clarification.
In fact that hospital charges more from affluent patients and use them for poor patients.
Jaybee

Only reuse if battery left

by kermiehiho - 2011-03-25 08:03:43

My understanding was that old pacemakers are only reused in third-world countries if they still have battery power left. Unless it's defective, in which case I assume nobody'd want it anyway, that means the only way your pm will be "reused" or sold would be if you die, no?

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