My son's icd

My 38 year old son has an defibullator with pacemaker. Approximately 2 months ago, he had the defibulattor to fire 12 times within 3 minutes. He was in tremendous pain, saw flashes and was rushed by ambulance to IN Heart Hospital. They adjusted his device and monitored him for two days. It seems his T-wave was misread as an extra heartbeat and was shocking his heart back into rythem. He has since been diagnosed with PTSD, as anything that flashes, is a sudden loud noise or feeling his device pace is very disturbing. He feels like a baby because he has these feelings. Has anyone had this problem? I, too, have a pacemaker, but not the defibullator.
Thanks

3 Comments

false shock

by musser75 - 2010-05-20 01:05:44

hi berry,
First, accept my sadness for your son. In ICD's , there are two types shocks: false and true shocks. True shocks, as the name impiles, delivers electric during life treating arrythmias. Indeed, ICD's are not excellent devices, so some times they deliver the electric shock in an appropriate way. These are called false shocks. There are lots of reasons for flase shocks. One of them is T wave oversensing, which is the case in Your son. T wave is the depolarization wave of the heart muscle. It is the electric current produced during the relaxation phase of the heart muscle. ICD's sometime senses this current as a normal heart beat. Besides, it counts normal heart beats and ''thinks'' that the heart rate is too high and delivers the shock as a guarantee measure. In order to to overcome this, some adjustments are made in the ICD sa it is the case in your son.
Patients who experience false shocks get in real trouble. They wait in real anxiety for the next shock. After a couple time, it becomes a vicious circle. He should receive professional help. An other measure to overcome this anxiety: there are alarm sounds in the ICD's. you can set them for different conditions. For example: the battery runs out od there is something wrong with the leads. You can switch on this alarm for the shock deliverence. The ICD beeps app. 10 sec before the shock. My experience, patientd do really relax if they know that this option on and most of them overcome their awaiting anxiety.
As a medical professional, I really know your son's feeling. Tell him, he is not the only one and ICD will surely save his life in the future.
Best wishes
Musser75, MD

PTSD

by Pookie - 2010-05-20 10:05:54

I have been diagnosed with that.

My suggestion would be some professional help. Sure, this site can be supportive and a wealth of information, but something as serious as PTSD (in my opinion) should be dealt with by someone experienced in that field.

It's a long process, but it's do-able.

Just let him know he is not alone.

Take care,
Pookie

Thanks

by berrybasket48 - 2010-05-20 11:05:15

Thanks to you those who responded to my post. I had no idea there was a "zap" club, but I knew he wasn't the only person to experience this shock. He is seeing a therapist and I will relay your information to my son. He has visited this site and I will suggest that he does again. His cardiologist has assured him that the icd is worth the risk to save his life at some point. God bless you all. Berrybasket48

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I'm 35 and got my pacemaker a little over a year ago. It definitely is not a burden to me. In fact, I have more energy (which my husband enjoys), can do more things with my kids and have weight because of having the energy.