Dear Danielle:
I am very sorry to hear that your neighbor has just died. Did you know that pacemakers will not keep a person alive when the time has come for him to die? Heart muscle is unlike any other muscle in your body. It is contracting constantly and requires huge amounts of oxygen to stay vital (alive and well).
When a person has a heart attack, this usually means that oxygen is blocked
from getting into the heart muscle. The muscle first becomes sore and usually
causes chest pain when not enough oxygen is getting to it. If the oxygen is
completely blocked, the heart muscle that is near the blocked artery will die.
This is what is usually meant as a heart attack. If a patient has a
pacemaker and the heart muscle is dead, then the pacemaker cannot pace that
muscle.
You asked me to tell you something about a pacemaker. O.K., lets start with
the basic stuff. The little metal can of the pacemaker is made out of a very
hard metal, titanium. Inside the can is a battery, a circuit board (that's
where the brains of the pacemaker are located), and wires to let the
electricity out of the can and down through the leads. On top of the
pacemaker is a plastic top called (this is a hoot) a header! The header is
really made of epoxy. If you are unsure of what epoxy is, ask your science
teacher. There is a big hole in one end of the header for the lead to go
into, and on top of the header (sometimes on the side of the header) are 1 or
2 tiny screws to tighten the lead into place.
The lead had one end that goes
into the header and the other end that goes into the heart (ask Ashleigh
where in the heart). If the doctor puts everything together correctly.
. .BINGO! . .the pacemaker causes the heart to beat and the patient gets to go
home.
If you think of anything else about pacemakers that you want to learn, please write to me. I know more about pacemakers than any person needs to know about anything. Mrs. Weeg will tell you that I cannot have a conversation with her without mentioning the word pacemaker at least once. Maybe I'll grow up someday and learn some new stuff.
It was great hearing from you, please keep writing.
You new, but boring, old Key Pal
D-J
Delos Johnson