I had my ICD implant 4th weeks ago, now that I am back to work, they are worried about me. Las Monday I end up in the ER because I was to close to a magnetic field at work. Now work has me not doing hardly anything because they are afraid that I may have another incident. What can I do so that I don't lose my job. or If I lose my job, would I be able to get another job, should I metion that I have an ICD during my interview?

 

 

You are listed as a "ADMINISTRATOR" so are we to assume you cannot avoid close proximity to these devices? Also what was it you were close to that caused a problem? We need to know that to give some advice. Did the ER say the problem was due to the magnetic field or could it have been something else? As for job interviews, employers dont like employees with a heart condition let alone a pacemaker. Your countries laws may state that you have to tell them about your pacemaker etc on the application form. This would prevent you from getting a job if you needed one. After all what employer would take on a broiler hen when he can have a spring chicken. I know, Ive been there, I can laugh at the situation but I am one of those people who trys to turn adversity to advantage, and win So we are forced to break the law in order to feed ourselves. Please answer my questions so that I can make a more judged comment. Cheers Peter

 

my thoughts for myself i wouldn't say. it is my personal business if i can still do the job. maganetic field wowo a big one. beating adversity is my game. hehe i have a ll kinds of plans. jessie

 

I believe the federal law states that "handicapped" or "physically challenged" requires employers to make "reasonable accommodations" for an employee. Basically, they have to give you a new chair perhaps desk if you have a disabling back injury. They do NOT have to build you a new office wing. If not that, they can move you to an "equivalent" job. A jack hammerer does NOT get to become a secretary.

I think your only requirement in a job interview is to present your case to be hired. If you feel your medical situation is not a factor for the job, then I would never bring it up-you don't have to and I don't think they can ask.

The unsaid word here is discrimination. You may want to call your state's labor department and ask them. You could even possibly discuss your situation with a labor attorney (ugh!). Given the very poor employment market today, I would do some checking now to see how you can preserve your present job.

 

Hi Gracie,

Some of the other comments deal with how you can insure your right to work is not infringed upon, so I'll not got there.

Pete asked some questions that if you could answer them it would provide some of us with a better basis for making our guesses. I am especially interested in that magnetic field you mention as possibly being the cause of your problem. What generates this magnetic field? Do you work in a heavy industrial plant where you are close to big electric motors, strong magnets or electric welding machines? Or, are you in a room where there is a lot of electronic equipment such as computers?

My guess based on what little I know (now please don't get offended by what I say here) is that you may be a victim of lack of information about your pacemaker. This is a very common for many of us. We get a pacemaker and are told something while we are still half-goofy from the anesthetic or just overwhelmed by the entire situation, then we are given a little book that tells us all sorts of things that we can and can not do and are sent home. By the time we get home most of us are thinking "I now have this little electronic gadget in my body that is keeping me alive so I had better be sure nothing happens to it." We read the little book and while it does contain legitimate information, many times it is blown our of proportion. Especially for those of us that have a pacemaker for a slow heartbeat which in reality is an on demand pacemaker. In other words our pacemaker just goes along for the ride until our heart rate drops to a point below the low set point on the pacemaker, or we have some arrhythmia that the pacemaker may or may not be able to correct.

I don't know why we are allowed to home with all this information, or no information. Unless we are 100% pacemaker dependant (and not many of us are) outside interference, from such as a magnetic field that we are exposed to for several hours, is at most going to be a nuisance, not life threatening.

You have had your PM for 4 weeks, which I'll guess means you have not yet had that first checkup. When we have a checkup, our PM is exposed to a magnetic field deliberately, so that the settings can be changed if necessary. You can feel (at least I can feel it on mine) very plainly when the magnet is place over my PM.

This is an over simplification, but essentially what happens here (and it will happen when we are exposed to a strong magnetic field anywhere) is our PM shifts gears, so to speak. You see we have two sides to our PM that do not work together. Each works at a specific time. One side is the part that runs what I call the on demand part of our PM. With the on demand part, the PM monitors our heart beat and steps in and sends an impulse to make our heart beat only when necessary. That side has a low and high set point. Mine are 80 low and 110 high, but yours will be whatever the doctor thinks is best for you. When the heart rate drops below that low set point the PM comes on line and keeps the heart rate at or above that number, depending on your activity at the time. When the heart rate goes above highest point the PM just becomes what I call a spectator, waiting for something to happen that makes its help necessary. Now this is the on demand side.

The other side or the fixed rate side comes into play when we are exposed to an electromagnetic field, such as that magnet during a check up or some other high energy field. What happens here is the switch in the PM changes positions and the on demand side is taken off line and the side with a fixed rate goes to work. What is happening here is the pacemaker takes over the heart rate and keeps it a fixed rate and does not pay any attention to what our hearts natural pacemaker is trying to do. This can lead to conflicting commands going to our heart and it is possible during this time to have the PM trying to make the heart beat while at the same time the heart's natural PM is trying to do the same job. When this happens we will feel this as double beats, skip beats, PVC or some other irregular heart beat, some of which are very uncomfortable, but rarely harmful. The good part is when you leave the vicinity of whatever causes the switch change, your PM will return to normal operation and no harm will have been done.

One last suggestion, don't mistake in irregular heart beat as a problem with your new PM. That is easier said than done I know since we have no idea and usually have not been informed on what feelings to expect or what feelings to not be concerned about. When these questions arise you may try the doctor or the technician, but you problably will have better luck getting an answer here. That is because one or more of us have experienced what you are having, where that doctor or tech has never had a PM and they still think everything is back and white. Believe me it is not when to comes to pacemakers.

Good luck with the new pacemaker.

Smitty

 

Gracie: Did the comments address your concerns or are you now more confused than ever? Sometimes we ask someone what time it is and we get a long dissertation on how to make a clock. We don't know what country or state you reside in. Go talk to an expert in labor law in your jurisdiction. I can only add that I do not go along with any advice that tells you to lie or hide the truth about your having an ICD. Lies never work. And as for just keeping silent:
Abraham Lincoln said: "Truth is not only violated by falsehood, it is equally outraged by omission" Good luck.

 

I want to thanks everyone for their replied and advice to my comments. My lack of knowlegde of how my life was going to change after having the ICD implant was not fare to me and everyone who gets one ( I agree totally with smitty) but I am not a person that gives up easily.

I believe that the cardiologist or technicians should had been more open to me and tell me the consequences of having this implant. Yes it save my life, ok, but everything is not honky dory.

Sincerely,

Gracie

 

Let's be clear, an ICD is a whole different animal than a pacemaker (PM). And if you have an ICD and have ever received "therapy" ( a shock), you move further up the genus and species tree. Again, talk to your State's (N. Carolina?) labor department about "discrimination in employment due to 'disability' ." Then give some thought to discussing it with (usually some slimy reptile type) employment lawyer. Your employer might surprise you in already going overboard for you, but if you want to feel comfortable....

I agree with you 100% on the minimization of information provided to those receiving an ICD. It is a true life changing event, much more so if you've ever experience the thing actually working (getting shocked). That is another topic altogether though.

 

ICD may mean Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator but we have cases here where people use ICD to identify both pacemakers and defibrillators.

The reason being, I think, in some articles on the devices and some people, including doctors, call a pacemaker an Implantable Cardio Device. So unless the person states specifically that they have a defibrillator (and most them do) I always guess they have a pacemaker, be that right or wrong.

 

If you are asked to answer medical questions, and you think it's just your business, I think they have a right to decide that you misrepresented yourself to get insurance coverage. I'm susre someone will know the answer, but I just thought I should point out that while you have a right "out in the world" to keep it a secret, you waive some of your "rights" in the workplace..that's just reality.
CC

 

Got hired as a temp (contractor), working for Eaton Corporation with the possibility of getting hired full time, but it never happen due that they learn that I had an ICD.
I really like the company, the people and job I was doing as a designer. I was doing wire run list by reading schematics, updating and creating drawings, assemblies and sub-assemblies using AutoCAD and Inventor 2008, according to engineer specifications. Stay in contact with the techs in the plant to make sure the equipment that was going out the door match with the customer drawings. The only problem I had was depending on how much voltage was build in the unit, I could not stay close by to see the test runs. I get so frustrated, because here i have a job that I loved and now because of the ICD I can't continue. HR will tell me that they terminated my position, but in reality I had all the requirements, experience , schooling to be hire as full time employee, which I tried in many occasions to get hire in other open positions, with not luck.

I had giving up Eaton, started looking for another job, where hopefully they will not mine for a person having an ICD like me.