CPR and ICD Question

[Nancy C]

My sister just took a CPR class this week and the instructor said CPR could be performed on someone with an ICD. Now I am confused; I thought if my heart stopped, my ICD would jump start it. Why would I ever need CPR? Am I placing too much faith in the ICD?
Nancy

[Toogoofy317]

An Aicd will only protect you from V-tach and V-fib. Compressions are still recommended because it could be other factors that cause the lack of pulse.


hope this helps

mary S.

[Pam Alexson]

Additional point. If the heart does not respond to defibrillation for what ever the source of cardiac problem, it would be vital to keep oxygenated blood moving around the body via CPR until an intervention can be made or a decision becomes necessary.

Certainly none of us like to think about it but, the defibrilator is to help prevent sudden death . It can not however fix something that is beyond it's capacity.

( I am trying to be tactfull here.) Example:

When I first got diagnosed and was beginning to see an HCM knowledgeable doctor, the boob I had formerly seen for 18 years said to me, "Why would you let them put a defibrilator in you? If your heart is as bad as they are saying , what are you just going to be lying there on the ground with a devise firing and still die?" I should have slapped him and I will never forget the trauma he caused me.

The reasoning is somewhat accurate for what he was attempting to say , but he was crass and insensitive and totally inappropriate.

I hope this makes some sense.

Pam

[Nancy C]

Thanks for the information. I definitely had the wrong impression. I thought I could cross off heart failure from my list of thing to worry about. Now I understand that it is just certain events that the AICD handles. I'm going to have to do some more reading.
Nancy

[Burton Borrok]

Hi folks,
I hear all you AICD’ers talking about this great new thing where you can transmit the read-out over the phone and save EP visits. But then you talk about having to go through a procedure every four years or so to take out the old unit and replace it with a new one. I suspect, even using the same wires, it is an expensive procedure – and Lisa not withstanding, it usually curtails your activities for a spell. Not to mention that, quoting Lisa, it hurts like $%#@*$.

It strikes me that if they can build a unit that they can get read-outs from, right through the flesh, why can’t they build a unit that they can recharge right through the flesh – say annually - when you have to see your EP anyway? That way instead of lasting four years before needing replacement, how about twelve years - or twenty for that matter.

While we’re in the Blue Sky area, the wires go through the arteries, right? There is a (hopefully) constant flow of blood in these arteries. How about a teeny, tiny hydro-electric generator placed in the artery to supply a small but constant trickle charge of electricity to the battery and in that way keeping it fully charged? Hopefully this could be accomplished without impeding the flow of blood to any significant degree.

Gee, I hope some inventor in the right place at the right time reads this, gets inspired, and starts building some of these units. Wouldn’t that be a nice improvement?
Burt

[Cappy]

CPR could be performed as compressions are done towards the middle of the chest, and most AICD's are near the collarbone

For the record I have done CPR five times for reals.