Well, we found out that a John Deere Zero turn riding mower is a big no no! Monday hubby went out to cut some grass, figured a riding mower was nice and easy, no problems.

He was on that thing from about 9 am to 2 pm, got lots of grass cut. Got off, felt bad. Figured it was the heat.

Had a check up the next day. They asked him what he did yesterday from 9 am to 2 pm. He played dumb for some reason. Oh nothing, just tinkering around. They replied with;
Well whatever you were tinkering around with shut your pacemaker down from 9 to 2. And then they went back over the past few weeks and sure enough everytime he cut the grass you could see where it shut down, went into safety mode or whatever its called.
After he finally confessed what it was they said it was the interference from the mower.

Also found out a weed-wacker and leaf blower are bad too. Unless he can actually manage to hold them at arms length to do the job.

On a side note, I find this part funny...kinda...but scarey...kinda.
When he used the mower he would carry a walkie talkie in case he needed me or I needed him.

He would be out there cutting, and hear a beeping noise and thinking it was me calling him, stop mowing, call me and ask what I wanted. I'd reply nothing. He would go back to mowing. A bit later he'd hear the beeping again. Again he'd call me.

Come to find out it was his pacemaker beeping...trying to warn him or whatever that it was going into safety or shut down mode.

 

 

I find your posting interesting as we have an Ariens rider mower. I have often ridden it without any adverse effect. What type of pacemaker do you have? Cheers from Oz

 

Hi Lama,

You are having a problem from doing something that many of us do using the same equipment and have no problem. All of the devices you named generate an electromagnetic field. However it would be a very weak EMF and I think it should be too weak to affect a pacemaker that is not defective, or one that has the proper settings. Now before anyone asks I don't know if there are settings to prevent such as this from happening, but to quote Gibbs on NCIS, that is my gut feeling.

Obviously the people that check your pacemaker do not know of anything that can be done to prevent this problem so I woud suggest that you try to get a manufacturers Rep to take a look at your pacemaker. That is an awfully weak EMF that is giving you problems and you are likely to find them much stronger anytime, anywhere. Since you do have some ill effects from an EMF when you may run into real big problems when you are least expecting them. One other thing, an EMF, if it is strong enough to affect a pacemaker should make the pacemaker go into the magnet mode. This is the mode they put it in during checkups when they put the magnet over the pacemaker. In that mode it should not quit working but should start giving you a constant heart rate. For example when mine is in magnet mode my heart rate will be 90, yet the low setting on mine is 80. I see it as having the a potential to be a bigger problem than you have incurred so far.

I wish you good luck,

Smitty

 

Strange. I just returned from a trip to the mid west area where I visited relatives on a farm. During my stay I drove a number of John Deer machines including a mower, a mini truck, and a large tractor. It had no effect on my Medtronic Kappa 701 pacer.
Here at home I run a weed whacker and leaf blower regularly and never give it a thought about having the engine near me. I have 100% A/V block so a problem with the pacer gets my attention and I haven't had any.

I'm wondering if they have the pacemaker lead mode set to Unipolar. That leaves the sensing lead much more vulnerable to interference. I have let the Medtronics rep know that I need a heads up if he ever changes mine to Unipolar. I let him know I work around engines and electronics and his response is "no problem".

frank

 

I many of you before, I've been legally dead atleast twice and once as a child that I cannot confirm..So that would make 3 times....only 6 lives left......I just turned 46 in june.....The last time I died was 12/07, the doc said you are now 100% disabled....I still worked until last week....I went in for a checkup and the doc said that's it.you have to quit working NOW!!!......I'm thinking how am I going to tell the company??.....no need to worry , 1 hour after the doctor visit the office called and said I was permanetely terminated.. Anyway, I am a State Licensed General Contractor and cannot go back to work for myself, because I need power tools........But..IF YOU READ YOUR INSTRUCTION MANUAL, IT CLEARLY STATES DO NOT USE CHAIN SAWS, SAW ZALLS, OR ANY VIBRATING DEVICE...( I know it says alternators, power tools, use cellphone on opposite side, etc...)....The vibrations can and will set off your device.....if you don't believe me read my Defibrillator hand book...........Anyway have appointment with SSA for disability Income on Tuesday.....I was going to buy one of those reel mowers like grandma had when I was a kid............

 

Your husband has the Crappa II Model. If everything interferes with his ICD then the unit he has is crap. I might understand one thing maybe, but your post implies he has interference with multiple devices. As others said, I too use all this equipment including a reciprocating (vibrating) saw and the only problem I have is with my wife yelling at me.

The warnings on all the equipment as well as in the manuals are CYA. for the manufacturers to avoid potential lawsuits. Shielding on the lawn mower, the walkie talkie, and his CRT-D as well as the distance from these to his implant should result in no problems.

 

The important thing is to first decide what you are comfortable with. If you are only comfortable with the warnings in the User Guide then by all means follow them. The same goes with with the doctors instructions.

As you have probably noticed there a number of us on this forum that are more comfortable with evaluating the official information ourselves plus listening to the docs.

I see it this way: in the end when our heart stops beating and we have 10-15 seconds to reflect on our decisions, we may think "I followed all the instructions, took all the meds, and was a good patient so this isn't my fault". Or we may think "I did a bunch of things against prudent medical advice, and I had a heck of a good time while it lasted".

No matter what we do, we all have the same risk of dying..100%.

cheers,

frank