Heart2Heart is shutting down after seven years.

Diff

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From: Middle of nowhere, Kansas

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Mildly interesting post about pacemakers

Was browsing reddit again and ran across a post on ExplainLikeIm5 asking about how pacemakers manage to deal with the need for different rates and there was this comment that I thought would interest you guys, especially you writer types.

I have a cardioverter/defibrillator. Mine will pace at 47bpm (my normal resting heart rate is around 56-60). It will also cardiovert (aka shock - think the paddles, but directly attached to my heart) when I get an irregular heart rhythm (most common for me) or when it's going too fast (have walked into the hospital at >300bpm (360, but who's counting)). It will basically shock me to stop my heart, then shock me to start it up again, and then force pace. It's weird to sit in a chair at the heart function clinic and have a nurse speed up and slow down your heart.

Here's my device

Defib https://imgur.com/a/m2MgtFV

The whole thread's a pretty interesting read if you've got the time, too. Apparently really old pacemakers didn't have any ability to adapt so you were just stuck with a single speed heart?