Mashgin self checkout

Hello my husband has had a defibrillator since 2020 due to him having a cardiac arrest, By God grace I am a RN and I was not scheduled to work that night to perform CPR when he went into cardiac arrest. He's had the defibrillator for 3 years he's had no issues no shocks  until now. Last night when we out of town in SC I sat in the car while he went into a Circle K store his defibrillator went off that was the first time it has ever went off. He walked infront of the self checkout counter and he said if felt like someone had punched him and shot him and snatched his soul from his body and everything went dark he said he had to grab onto the counter. People inside the store asked was he OK he let them know he hs a defibrillator, and the cashier told him that she would take him at the next counter where they actually ring up your items manually because he was standing infront the self check out he came outside and told me what happened and that his chest felt hot where the defibrillator is located. I went in the store and I saw Circle K has the Mashgin machine that they use for self checkout and this machine has some type of magnet in it. Could it be possible that this machine set his defibrillator off and there was no signs in the store giving people warning signs that have defibrillators.

4 Comments

You should..

by USMC-Pacer - 2024-01-20 14:27:01

...have immediately went to the ER as I doubt any magnet would cause it to fire. They use magnets to put the device in test mode or to make changes at the clinic. At the very least, I would have your husband send a transmission and/or go to the device clinic to see what happened. Possibilities are another event that happened 3 years ago, serious heart rhythm that needed therapy, etc., or less likely an innapropriate shock (I think these are less frequent nowadays). Others will comment on their experiences soon. Sorry this happened, good luck and God Bless!

This is a good read:

https://www.uscjournal.com/articles/management-patients-frequent-appropriate-and-inappropriate-implantable-cardioverter

Creepy!

by R2D2 - 2024-01-20 15:16:22

I am VERY interested to hear what others will say about this and plan to do some research on the matter. However, having experienced one shock with my defibrillator, I can say that the device felt hot to me as well, and the area around my heart ached as well as my left arm for about a day. Then I realized I had definitely been through something that tramatized my heart because I felt weak and lethargic for awhile, had strange arythmias for about 3 weeks and felt as though I took a few steps back in my progress. About a month later I started feeling more normal again, but the PTSD is still hanging around a little bit. The whole thing was very stressful, but at least I found out that it saved my life that day. I went into a very dangerous heart rhythm of over 260 bpm and would have died if I hadn't been shocked. Definitly check with your doctor and find out exactly what happened to make sure it wasn't an innappropriate shock. 

The point of my response is to encourage your husband if he is not feeling exactly up to par since the shock. From what I have learned, it's normal for your heart to take some time to completely recover from that event. I've been assured that one shock doesn't damage your heart, it just tramatizes it. 

get checked

by Tracey_E - 2024-01-20 22:12:21

He needs to be seen. It's much more likely that the timing was coincidence. The interrogation will tell.

Check out

by piglet22 - 2024-01-21 05:14:15

I doubt very much that a self service checkout would affect a device.

The ones I occasionally use have a weighing facility, a laser scanner and a card/phone reader.

Most are made from metal sheet which would shield any internal magnets if there were any.

Besides, the card reader can still take cards with magnetic strips which could be affected by magnetic fields.

The decision to shock must be the result of some complex code in the device and will include preset numbers from timers and sensors.

Any one of those could trip the device.

It could be something like "if BPM is greater or equal to 220 and elapsed time greater than 10 seconds, then fire"

Of course it won't.be aa simple as that, but if one number goes over the preset, say BPM is 221, the device will be on a hair trigger.

Inevitably, leaving those decisions to a device, occasionally something will go wrong.

None of this takes anything away from the severity of the event.

I can fully understand the apprehension involved and I hope it gets fully investigated.

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