The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 53, No. 218, Ed. 1 Wednesday, June 25, 1975 Page: 11 of 42
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THE BAYTOWN SUN Wedirsday, Jun« 2S, 1975 11-A
Recalls Frighten Patients Using Pacemakers
FRANK AND ERNEST
by Bob Thov«
irrasco
i Finally pound
OIL ON MY
propmty. Bur
IT’* LIAKINC
MoM TMt
CRANKCASt.
While they readily concede tary of Health, Education and
there have been problems, they Welfare, says defective pace-
say that life-threatening defects makers have been associated
with at least 26 deaths and
some injuries to heart patients
over the last three years.
Because of a General Ac-
counting Office (GAO) report
this year criticizing how the
Food and Drug* Administration
(FDA) handled pacemakers,
the FDA has begun working up
new regulations for manufac-
turing the-devices and for in-
suring their safety. An FDA
spokesman said the new regu-
lations also will govern pace-
maker recalls.
BYPASSES DEFECTS
The pacemaker1 substitutes
for the natural electrical sys-
tem in the heart that triggers
and regulates the muscle
pumping action. It sustains life
by bypassing a defective elec-
trical system and keeping an
otherwise functional heart
working,
There are two types of pace-
makers. One produces constant
electrical impulses at a rate set
by the doctor for a particular
patient's needs. The other has a
special circuit that senses a
patient's natural heart activity.
The circuit stops the pacemak-
er when natural heartbeats are
adequate and restarts it when
major pacemaker manufac-
turers.
Pacemaker patients generally
say they are happy with their
units and that they have great
faith in their darters to handle
any problems.
Daniel Driscoll, 65, of Kittery
Point, Maine, says he has had
problems with several pace-
makers in the seven years he s
used them. But he says his
is working just fine
"I'm not much of a worrier
and I’ve had some problems,"
said the former supermarket
oWner "I personally don’t get
excited about what 1 read in
the paper, but I guess it does
bother some people.
"If something's wrong, I
think my doctor would tell me.
What the hell, I'm living on
borrowed time anyway, so why
to have one in you anyway,
knowing your heart depends on
a pacemaker to keep going
When I hear tha( a pacemaker
is being recalled, right away I
wonder what kind it is, I won-
der if it's mine."
Mable Blair is a 32-year-old
suburban housewife who has
had a cardiac pacemaker for
seven years.
Shs is much younger than
most pacemaker patients. But
her anxieties are shared by
many of the 125,000 Americans
who carry the small electronic
devices inside their bodies to
regulate their heartbeats.
"Once 1 find out it's not my
type. I relax,” Mrs. Blair says,
but I wonder about those who
do have that model. After all,
it's not like soup or cars being
recalled. People depend on
these things for their lives."
Doctors who specialize in
pacemakers also are concerned
about public announcements of
problems, potential and real,
with the devices.
have been few when consid-
ering the thousands of pace-
makers that have been im-
planted in the past 15 years.
"We're generally satisfied
with the quality of pacemakers,
particularly when you look at
the vast improvements over the
first models," said Dr. J. War-
ren Hawthorne, the cardiologist
heading the . pacemaker pro-
gram at Massachusetts General
Hospital. "But there always
new, atom-powered pacemaker worry
OPEN til 8 p.m. Mon.-Fri. OPEN til 6 p.m.4ATUflDflYS
lli|llWillllli|M
’arrasco escaped from prison
October 1972 and was recap-
ed July 22, 1973, when he
i wounded in a shootout at a
tel in San Antonio. His wife
), arrested at the same time.
CARNIVAL
by Dick Turner
Conns Thirty Day Guarantee
We guirinlH Itiil it the item you purchesa is sold
my whirs for loss up to 30 days from purchase
•supplemental support is
needed.
To install a pacemaker, sur-
geons connect electrodes to the
dill—wo will refund tbo diflironce dr your purchase
heart "amf run wires to the ab-
dominal cavity. The pacemaker
price in full
duced in recent years" to The
size of a small pack of ciga-
rettes, are connected to the
wires and put inside the. cavity.
Dr, Harthorne and some oth-
er doctors say they should be
the ones to inform a patient
that his pacemaker might be
faulty.
"Whenever there is a recall,
we are besieged by frantic
phone calls from patients who
don't have anything to worry
about;" says Dr. Michael D.
Klein, a cardiologist at Boston
University Medical Center.
"We (doctors) know each, of
our patients and how to best
deal with them. If there is a
problem, we would know how
to approach it with a certain
patient so as hot to cause un-
due alarm."
Dr. Klein recommended a
central pational registry of
pacemakers to aid in notifying
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patients with suspect units.
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Such a registry, as well as se-
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Brown, Leon. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 53, No. 218, Ed. 1 Wednesday, June 25, 1975, newspaper, June 25, 1975; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1105195/m1/11/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.