Recycling Pacemakers May Alleviate Heart Disease Burden Across The Globe

Brandon El
Oct. 22, 2010

A pacemaker is used in the treatment of certain heart conditions. It's an electronic device implanted beneath the skin for providing a normal heartbeat by electrical stimulation of the heart muscle. Creating these devices is very expensive and surgery can become quite costly on patients. According to Kim Eagle M.D. even with cost reduction, a new pacemaker is often more than the annual income of the average worker in underdeveloped nations. Each year 1 million to 2 million people worldwide die due to lack of access to pacemakers. In the US many heart patients would like to donate their pacemakers after death to relieve the stress of buying brand new, high cost pacemakers from scratch.
At the University of Michigan (UM) the issue has been up in the air as to what they can do anout making this afterlife donation possible. In the Cardiovascular Center at UM they discuss the legality and logistics of collecting pacemakers, after they are removed for burial or cremation, for sterilization and reuse across the globe. In recent decades, industrialized nations have seen a drop in deaths from heart attacks and strokes. Poor nations have not been able to afford the electrophysiology technology that has reduced cardiac deaths in industrialized nations, those in low- and middle-income nations continue to experience an epidemic of cardiovascular disease. This idea of reusing pacemakers from perished individuals and donating them to other developing nations could significantly help lower death rates in these countries.

I personally feel that this is an intelligent decision. The US is usually always so ready to jump at the chance help out other less fortunate nations and this could be a huge aid to them all. These pacemakers are incredibly expensive and they are doing no one any good just rusting in a casket when there's a good possibility that they can be reused to treat others who suffer from cardiovascular disease.

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