Leads and Pacemakers

Hi my name is Sab i'm not acctually heart patient but my little brother is. He's 11 years old and has had a pacemaker put in over two years ago due to a heart block and law heart rate. Since my mum was pregnant with him she know something was wrong but doctors said it was nothing and that he was just a quite baby. Once he was born 8 weeks earlyer he was treated for slow heart and few other things like joint ribs.
Now only 2 years after his had a pacemaker put in his leads need changing. He's devestated and so we are. So please if there's anyone out there who has had a similar situation let me know how to deal with this as for both of our parents are't sure what to do and don't speak much English.....

3 Comments

it happens sometimes

by lok - 2012-10-02 05:10:58

Dear Sab, my daughter who is now 12 has had three different pacemakers and leads since she was 7, when she got her first pacemaker during to surgically induced heart block. Twice the leads kind of micro-dislogded themselves from the heart wall and they needed to be replaced. No one can explain why, but we were devastated as well. When she was given har 3rd pm in 2010, they positioned the ventricular lead in another place in her heart, don't know if it will work out for her, but she has now had this 3rd pm a little more than two years which is the longest time for any of her pm's, so we are hoping for this one to stay in place for many more years. This thing happens rarely, but it happens, so your brother is not the only one. I don't know what the specific problem is with your brother, but perhaps it will happen only this one time.
Best of luck from us

Thank you

by Sab28 - 2012-10-02 07:10:32

First of all thank you for your feetback...
My brother was not given a proper diognoses that we know of yet. However his been monitored over time since birth and has been living w a heart rate of 33 to 45 bits. He was unable to do any sports at school and eventually had difficulties walking across the living room, started to faint nd go blue and that's when the doctors made desison to have pacemaker done.
He's been good all this time since than but only few days ago he was complaning of filling funny at his chest and like he was going to be sick. He's doctors had a scan done of pacemaker and have said that leads need changing but not sure why this has happaned to him this quickly. So now my parents and i are having trable coming terms with it going through this again.
But thank you so much for sharing your story w me and best of luck to you nd your family from us as well and i hope that you daughter will not need another surgery for a while....

leads

by Tracey_E - 2012-10-02 10:10:38

As children grow, it's normal to need new leads. When he is done growing, he will get leads that go in the vein rather than epicardial. This type of leads lasts a lot longer.

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You trust technology more than your heart.

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