I need help! Anyone have an experience here?


I got a pacemaker implanted in December 2011 and life has been great. I have been off medications for the first time in my adult life. I have had no edema or palpitations. I began a new job 2 months ago as (of all things!) a monitor technician at our local hospital. I work in a room that houses approximately 30-40 computer monitors, extra telemetry boxes, charging banks, a hemochron and I wear a Vocera voice communication device at clips onto my collar. Within a couple of days of beginning my new position I began to have headaches and edema in my legs/ankles. I made an appointment with cardiologist for a pacemaker interrogation. At that time, everything looked good. As time went on I began working 12 hour shifts and began feeling worse as each day would go on. My cardiologist referred me to my family physician and I was placed on water pills, only needing them the days I worked. A 48 hour halter test was given and I had 418 events recorded during that time of SVT. I also had an EKG strip done at work in the monitor room. There were multiple interference or what the hospital calls "artifact" spikes as well as some pauses after the artifact in which my own pacemaker began to capture. (My pacer was pacing at 20% of the time prior to beginning in the monitor room) We generally have to turn pacemaker detection off on our monitors and are told that all pacemakers create "unknown" interference on the strips. This is not lead placement related. The EKG strips are easily read once detection is off. My heart has become so irritated that I have been placed back on medication. (racing heart, anxiety, shortness of breath etc) My pacemaker sensitivity has been checked and is already "tweaked".

My questions are these: #1) What equipment in my scenario might cause such interference? #2) Can these interferences cause health risks over a 12 hour time period while I am in my office? #3) What is a safe distance to be near all this equipment or is it advisable to move to a work area that is not in such proximity to so much EMI? Could it be the room itself has so much equipment that there is some sort of absorption issue? #4)Could the interference we see with other patients be something such as a ground issue within the hospital?

I know this is rather lengthy and I certainly appreciate your time. It's just not often that a person with a pacemaker works in this specialized field and if my situation can help others that may be experiencing arrhythmia I really want to be on board with resolving it.

My info :model # PM2210 serial #7174777 implant date 22/12/2011

Thank you so much. I am off work at this time pending above information on health risks associated with that particular area. Of course, I am working with my cardiologist and physician but little is known or documented on the health risks of employees working with such high volume of wireless telemetry equipment and computers.


1 Comments

I'm going to suggest something...

by donr - 2013-07-02 07:07:10

...so far off the wall that you will laugh!!!!!

I'll bet that this is a closed room w/ fluorecsent lighting & a huge closed loop air conditioning capability for all the equipment. Heat & high strength electric fields, along w/high levels of UV from the lighting can generate Ozone.

Sounds like some of the symptoms of ozone on the body.

All the equipment you mention can generate low levels of Ozone. Perhaps you are more sensitive to it than other people.

Whatever is bothering you is NOT imaginary - you have some changes in your ECG. It appears to be associated w/ the length of time you are in the environment - did NOT come on the first day you were there & got worse as the exposure increased.

Are your monitors new flat screen Liquid crystal or plasma types or the old CRT types? A whole slug of CRT monitors has a tremendous requirement for very high voltage power supplies, generating lots of heat & lots of high electric field strength areas. You could be swimming in localized Ozone islands.

I don't believe that the artifacts are caused by your environment - they come from the Pacers that the patients host in their rooms? This is a remote telemetry center collecting data from all sorts of patients scattered throughout the hosp, isn't it?

I did a Google search & the only ref to arrhythmia I found was A-Fib, not SVT - but that was in otherwise "Healthy " people - you already have a rhythm problem, so all bets are off in that area.

I hope this gives you an avenue of approach to finding the solution. It may affect your job, but help your health.

Don

Have an environmental health guy check for Ozone - might be surprised by what you find.

You know you're wired when...

You make store alarms beep.

Member Quotes

I just want to share about the quality of life after my pacemaker, and hopefully increase awareness that lifestyles do not have to be drastically modified just because we are pacemaker recipients.