Boston Scientific for 3 1/2 years

Had yearly interrogation with Boston rep and he told me I have only 2  years battery left.  He said very unusual.  I'm paced 1% in each chamber.   Got a call from cardiologist saying I had 60 days left and need to come in for replacement.   I told them what rep told me and they are consulting with him and getting back to me today.   Wondering if anyone with Boston has had this happen?

5 Comments

Not just one but two unlikely occurrences . . . hmmm.

by Gotrhythm - 2020-01-23 15:39:39

First of all let me say I have no experience or personal knowledge of battery depletion. But based on what I have learned by reading posts and comments over the years, this is highly unusual, especially given the utterly minimal amount you are being paced. Certainly in your shoes, I would want to know what went wrong.

I see from your history that when you are paced, you feel it as a pain in the center of your chest. If you were paced more than 1%, that would be hard to live with. Being able to feel the pacemaker pacing does happen, but it is highly unusual. And battery depletion after 3 1/2 years is also highly unusual. That's two unlikely things happening at the same time. I would question if the battery drain was somehow associated with a fault in a lead.

You are not alone. There have been other cases of sudden battery depletion, but I'm afraid I don't remember what make/model pacemaker or any details. We used to have an archive section but I don't see the "button" any more.

I hope some of our more knowledgeable and techno-savvy members will chime in.

Battery depletion

by jimterribak - 2020-01-23 15:57:28

Thx for the input.   Since I posted about the pain I could feel from pacing, Adjustments were made a year ago that alleviated that issue for the most part but that could still be connected.  I have an appointment with my cardiologist Monday morning and will discuss this.  Also talked to Boston today and they definitely consider it a defective PM and will replace at no cost.   Medicare should cover because this is considered necessary.   I'll know more after I see my doc.  

You do know that there's an FDA alert on *some* BostonSci units?

by crustyg - 2020-01-23 18:22:04

Yours is *probably* too old to be covered by this particular issue, but BostonSci have an entry in the FDA database about an issue covering about 2,900 devices where the battery fails prematurely.  The one that I know about is recall Z-3257-2018 - too recent for yours.

So this isn't exactly an unknown issue.

A real PITA when it's implanted into one's own body, of course. 

Sorry, really terrible pun there.

 

OH OH OH PICK ME

by Joe Newbie - 2020-01-25 02:20:46

WHAT????  

What do you mean oh it's defective?

How do I find out?

I have Boston-Scientific CRP-T Implanted Nov 25 2019 I have only had 1 visit and that was 60 days ago.

If anyone knows please let me know.

-Joe

Your routine follow up should show this...

by crustyg - 2020-01-25 05:58:45

... but if that's not fast enough go to

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfRES/res.cfm

and start searching.  Who knows, you could be part of another batch with affected batteries - but let's hope not!

HTH.

You know you're wired when...

Airport security gives you free massages.

Member Quotes

I'm still running and feeling great.