My father who is a Vietnam Veteran and widower had a visit to the VA today for his atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathy that he has been suffering from since 1992. This week he had the cath and stress tests. His injection fraction is holding at 25%. No worse...no better than it has been for years....actually it is better than it was since this started in 1992 (in which he was around 10% when this all started). Also, he has had none of his episodes in a while where he goes into a-fib and his pressure drops. However, today he was told they wanted to put a defibrillator in which we were told was a possibility if his condition worsens, which it has not. He told him he wanted to think about it and wanted to wait until my aunt got home (who is a registered nurse) to make a decision of how he wanted to proceed. The doctor then told him if he didn t do it he wouldn t prescribe his medications that do keep his heart functioning properly. Is this something that is common and or necessary to do? And if the condition has not worsened is it okay to wait until you feel comfortable with it, why withold life saving medicine?