Lead Failing / Opinions on Options

• by Jrs0070
• 2018-02-21 23:07:14
• Complications
• 1200 views
• 1 comments

Hi. I am a 22 yo female. I had my pacemaker put in when I was 5 years old. I started having issues this past year while excersising or doing strenuous activities. Went to the doc and got an x-ray because one of my leads was not doing anything. He found a “kink” in my lead which has caused it to rip in half. He has told me that I would have to have surgery to remove the lead and replace it. The surgery would have to be separated into two because of how my lead was placed. The first surgery would go in through a small insision and get most of my lead. The remainder would have to be taken out by opening up my chest because of how the original doctor curved it when installing it. He said because they’ve been in so long and how it would have to be taken out that it would be a very risky surgery with a 25% chance of bleeding out into my chest and dying. 

With that being said I asked about leaving this one in and just adding a working lead and he said he would go over all options with a group of surgeons who have done more of these and let me know. Also he has set my pacemaker up to run with my one lead and said that I could make that work in the long run if needed but it would cause other effects on my heart. 

My my question is has anyone else dealt with these kinds of problems? What did you do? How did the surgery go? What should I do? I’m scared. Thanks for the help.