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Internal Defibrillator
my grandmother jsut got an defibrillator inserted about a week ago and the doctor said that they was going to "test " it out tomorrow.since u havent got a chance to meet the doctor while i was there .i wanted to know what exactly does that mean and what they going to do ....thank you...and please no smartass remarks
Tue, 3 Apr 2012
Hello n Welcome to HCM...
defibrillator means whenever our heart rate increases due to VT/VF, it gives a shock automatically.
regarding test means, they want to see that whenever ur grandmother gets any VT/VF, that point of time defibrillator is giving SHOCK or not.
what they do, they increases the heart rate artificially by pacemaker or other machine and watch for the shock automatically by defibrillator.
in short, test means to see the defibrillator that weather it may give the shock when needed ??
so, good luck for ur grandma ....
defibrillator means whenever our heart rate increases due to VT/VF, it gives a shock automatically.
regarding test means, they want to see that whenever ur grandmother gets any VT/VF, that point of time defibrillator is giving SHOCK or not.
what they do, they increases the heart rate artificially by pacemaker or other machine and watch for the shock automatically by defibrillator.
in short, test means to see the defibrillator that weather it may give the shock when needed ??
so, good luck for ur grandma ....
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User's Response
nuria's
Response
I had a defibrillator inserted about 4 years ago. About every 6 months it has to be checked and tested. The test you're referring to would just be the first of these tests, to ensure that it's all working OK.
This doesn't involve any surgery. They use a computer with special software, placing an instrument about the size of a computer mouse over the defibrillator 'lump', allowing the computer and the on-board (or in-chest) chip in the implant to communicate, and do various readings.
It takes about 10 minutes and is completely harmless and non-intrusive.
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