If your Dog is dealing with an erratic heart, don’t fear. This can be addressed with a pacemaker, which is unfortunately expensive. However, donated previously loved pacemakers are free!
HOW ARE PACEMAKERS REUSED BY DOGS?
In the United States, some people who are nearing their death state in their wills that they will donate their pacemaker to a Dog. Families who have lost a loved one can also be reminded that they have the option to donate their loved one’s pacemaker if they wished.
Depending on the state of a used pacemaker, it can be reconditioned and made suitable for a Dog. With the free pacemaker, only the surgery will have to be paid for. The reuse of human pacemakers therefore gives hope to Dogs with troubled hearts, not to mention the people who love them.
CAN THIS BE DONE IN THE PHILIPPINES?
As of now, recycling pacemakers from humans for canine use is not available in the Philippines, but it’s already being done in other countries. Because a human pacemaker is very similar to a canine one, vets have successfully managed heart disease in many Dogs abroad.
PRECIOUS WASTE
Did you know that perfectly reusable human pacemakers are thrown away at the funeral home?
Sheldon Davis, lead author of a 2017 article on pacemaker recycling published in the World Journal of Cardiology, said that 85% of the deceased who have pacemakers are buried with them. However, if the body is cremated, the pacemaker must be removed to avoid possible device explosion.
PEOPLE VERSUS PETS
A controversy has arisen: There is now some debate as to whether used pacemakers can be reconditioned for other people. In other countries, pacemakers are considered single-use devices, so implanting them for the second time in another person is illegal. However, it’s not illegal to recycle a used pacemaker for people from other countries!
Noah Fromson in his 2024 article for Michigan Medicine said that people in developing countries can’t afford pacemakers, citing a study that mentioned how used pacemakers might have enough remaining battery life to be donated, restored, and used again.
Researchers from the University of Michigan’s Frankel Cardiovascular Center began sending these reconditioned pacemakers to low- and middle-income countries in 2010. They acquired used pacemakers from American patients who removed their old pacemakers for newer devices. They also got donations from families of the deceased who still had working pacemakers in their bodies.
In October 2018, Dr. Thomas C. Crawford of the Frankel Cardiovascular Center became the medical director of an international program that hopes to compare the effectiveness of used and reconditioned pacemakers to new ones. If the results are good, more reconditioned pacemakers could be used by more people, especially those from developing countries. The project is expected to be finished by October 2025.
PACING PROGRESS
Initial research with Dogs showed that a heartbeat can be balanced with external electrical stimulation. This eventually led to the invention of the pacemaker, according to Richard Scrase in a 2015 article for Understanding Animal Research.
Scrase said it all began with a portable pacemaker, then a pacemaker inserted in the body. What will follow? A pacemaker the size of a pill is being considered. Or, maybe with time, scientists could learn how to biologically repair the heart so it doesn’t need a pacemaker at all.
