Ah, the wonders of modern medical miracles – you can count the successful implant of the first leadless pacemaker into a New York patient without the need for surgery as one of them. Just how does this spanking new medical device work, and the kind of procedure involved to make it a success? After all, aren’t pacemakers meant to be implanted within, and the battery replaced from time to time? Gregory Dobin was the recipient of this unique pacemaker implant, and here is what he has to say about it, “Better? It’s not the word, better. Much better.”
Dobin holds the special honor of being the first patient in the U.S. to receive a leadless pacemaker, thanks to St. Jude Medical. While he did have his apprehension of being the first one to receive this leadless pacemaker (I am quite sure that there will be a fair bit of reservation for most folks), in the end his bravery and pioneering spirit paid off.
Dr. Vivek Reddy, Mount Sinai Hospital’s electrophysiology director, shared on how the leadless pacemaker is implanted into the body without having to go through any kind of najor surgery, saying, “The catheter holds onto the device. We introduce it through the vein in the leg, go up into the heart and basically screw it into the heart muscle. It detects intrinsic activity of the heart, what the heart is beating by itself, and at times when the heart is not beating by itself, the pacemaker will emit some electricity which is transmitted through the lead to the heart and causes the heart to beat.”
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