Can You Donate Your Pacemaker to a Dog After You Die?

Claim:

If you have got a pacemaker, you possibly can donate it to a canine after you die.

Rating:

In early December 2023, readers requested us through electronic mail if it was true that pacemakers will be “donated to dogs with cardiac points who would rely on it to remain alive.” The identical declare has been shared on-line a number of instances on varied social media platforms comparable to X, Facebookand Funny. For occasion, on Dec. 7, 2023, a post went viral on Facebook, claiming that “If you have got a pacemaker, you possibly can put it in your Will to have your pacemaker donated to a canine in want after you cross.”

(Facebook profile Did that?)

The identical declare was additionally spread on X (previously Twitter) informing different customers that “It even saves the canine’s proprietor the cost of the particular pacemaker which typically means the distinction in with the ability to afford lifesaving therapy or not.”

Did :
If you have got a pacemaker, you possibly can put it in your Will to have your pacemaker donated to a canine in want after you cross. Pacemakers can’t be donated to a different human, however they are often donated to dogs with cardiac points who would rely on it to remain alive. #dogsofx

— SheltieLeesi17 (@SLeesi17) December 2, 2023

Our analysis confirmed that that people with pacemakers can certainly donate these life-saving units to dogs after their passing, and due to this fact we have now rated the declare as True.

For occasion, the University of Missouri Veterinary Health Center’s website knowledgeable that “MU veterinary heart specialist recycles donated pacemakers — from each pets and folks — to take care of the rhythm of life for canine sufferers.” Moreover, the article underscored that donating pacemakers reduces veterinary prices and gives an enduring profit to dogs in want.

“There is actually no difference between human and canine pacemakers,” says Stacey Leach, DVM, an assistant instructing professor and researcher at MU’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “We use the same equipment, the same technology. Oftentimes, the appliances we use for our canine patients are essentially human-grade equipment that was donated to us.”

[…]

“We also receive — and encourage — donations of pacemakers that have outlived a patient, whether that patient was a dog or a human,” Leach says.

It continued (emphasis ours):

“Within the cardiology community, there’s an organization that serves as a repository for donated pacemakers, but there are so many cardiologists worldwide who are doing this procedure that they are very nearly always sold out,” Leach says. “So, sadly, we have gotten more and more depending on individuals donating pacemakers on to us, or buying model new pacemakers, which may run a number of thousand {dollars} for all the setup.

University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine runs the same initiative, specifically a “Pacemaker Donation Program,” that “gives coronary heart sufferers at MCNH (The Medical Center, Navicent Health) the choice of donating their used pacemakers to canine coronary heart sufferers at UGA.” The article on University of Georgia’s web site knowledgeable (emphasis ours):

Like people, dogs are in danger for growing cardiac problems that may intervene with size and high quality of life. Knowing that surgical procedures to deal with coronary heart issues in dogs will be very costly, one Navicent Health nurse determined to take motion to assist dogs in want of cardiac care.

“The similarities between how animals and humans are treated for certain diseases are very strong. When I was studying to become a nurse 20 years ago, I learned that pacemakers for human beings could be utilized in dogs, as well,” stated Terri Matula, a board licensed cardiovascular nurse at MCNH.

What’s extra, Medtronic, a medical machine firm, printed an article with the title “Pets and pacemakers: finest pals some time longer,” a couple of miniature schnauzer that acquired a pacemaker donated by the corporate. It underscored that “therapies utilized in people may assist animal sufferers.”

Medtronic donated Tara’s pacemaker via a nationwide nonprofit referred to as CanPacers. It’s a medical machine repository sponsored by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and maintained at North Carolina State University.

Its mission is to supply cardiac pacemakers and results in veterinary sufferers. Medical machine corporations donate the units, which had been initially supposed for human sufferers, and CanPacers oversees distribution to veterinary cardiology applications across the United States.

Finally, whereas some social media posts additionally claimed that “pacemakers can’t be donated to a different human,” it stays a posh situation. An article printed by the University of Michigan Medical School with the title “Helping hearts: Team sends much-needed pacemakers to Ukraine” knowledgeable that in 2022 Ukraine acquired refurbished pacemakers from the college’s My Heart Your Heart program. However, a 2012 study on the subject underscored that “whereas preliminary information recommend security and efficacy of pacemaker reuse for units which have satisfactory remaining battery life, so far implantable pacemakers should not accepted for reuse within the U.S. or European Union.” A Reuters’ article from the identical yr read:

People in growing international locations with coronary heart issues could not have the ability to afford new pacemakers, however a brand new research suggests units eliminated throughout autopsies could have sufficient remaining battery life to be donated and used once more.

Researchers discovered that of 334 autopsies preformed on the University of Pennsylvania between February 2009 and July 2011, 27 pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) had been recovered. Of these, eight units had a minimum of 4 years of battery life remaining.

It additionally underscored that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers pacemakers to be single-use units.

In January 2021 we printed a truth verify on the same subject, investigating whether or not a research discovered that an iPhone 12 can disable a cardiac rhythm administration machine.