The beat goes on: technology’s value

To the editor:

I am now 76 years old, fully retired from the military and with many problems common to “senior citizens.” One of those problem sets is congestive heart failure. I had a quadruple bypass in 1996 and consider myself extremely lucky to be writing to the people of Danville. In conjunction with this, I had a pacemaker/defibrillator implanted in my chest in December 2008. The purpose of these two functions is to correct an irregular heartbeat and to re-start the heart if it stops or develops a dangerous rhythm.

On Oct. 14, my physical therapist was here and had helped me through a series of arm and leg exercises, with which I had had no problems at all. He said, “Well, let’s go outside for a walk.”

We did about 20 paces, turned around and came back into my house. At the front door, I said, “Let’s put on my oxygen cannula, I feel a little rocky.” We walked into my bedroom area and tried to dig out my oxygen tubing. I sat on my bed to get my cane and BANG! My pacemaker/defibrillator kicked in and jolted my heart with a shock!

Not just once, but four times in succession, each one with about a four-minute delay. I have not had a full explanation as to why this occurred, but I suspect that my heart was in ventricular tachycardia, getting ready to fail, or it had stopped completely and the defibrillator simply continued to function as it was supposed to.

Believe me, this got my attention. I felt like a professional boxer was punching me in the chest with all his might.

This was one of the most frightening experiences of my life. After the second shock, I was terrified that there would be more, and there were!

I am now grateful to have the opportunity to complain about the whole thing. In the ambulance they applied the leads to the cardiac monitor to my chest and I noticed immediately that the oscilloscope pattern looked quite regular, not jumping all over the place as it had for months.

The pattern was still abnormal, in that it was in atrial fibrillation, instead of a normal cardiac rhythm as it should have been. That is to say that I still am a cardiac patient, but am just now in better shape than I was before I was shocked.

In conclusion, if your cardiologist says you need one of these gadgets, take his word for it because it is much better to be complaining about it than to be dead and silent. I am enthusiastic about the alternatives that I chose and recommend it to anyone in need thereof.

CLARK G. WILLIAMS

Danville