Posted on 12/07/2011 9:06:43 AM PST by MamaDearest
They might want to check the batteries first.
Second-hand pacemakers from dead Americans are being cleaned up and implanted into heart patients in the Third World.
And according to doctors the practice is 'very safe and effective'.
The pacemakers - small devices which use electrical impulses to regulate the beating of the heart - have been inserted into 53 patients in India who had severe heart rhythm disorders called heart block and sick sinus syndrome.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Sounds like a good idea to me.
Gives a whole new meaning to outsourcing.
They don’t need them anymore. Those darn pacemakers are littering up the planet. /s
Seriously, if a used pacemaker with a dud battery ends up in Kim Jong Il, is anyone really going to shed a tear?
Recycling that makes sense.
Just put me up on Craigslist when I'm gone.
My grandmother, who died in 1984 at age 90, had a total of five heart pacers. She wore three out, one was actually recalled and the one in her when she died, I think we got a core charge.
I’m aghast, why clean them up?
So?
They recycle living organs too.
There are questions. Where is the line of delineation between organ donation and medical device does the removal fall? Are permissions by family of the deceased required or assumed? How would anyone know if the pacemaker of their loved one was removed unless there was a visual of the chest of their loved one prior to burial or cremation?
That’s a great idea. I assume they’re being completely refurbished. Better than wasting them in a grave.
In England they will have to remove the pacemakers before they toss the body in the oven to generate power. Those batteries make a nice “pop” when they are burned.
So...I’m confused now...
Who are the Indian patients going to call for pacemaker “tech support”...America or India?
“Thanking you for being called about your pacemaker. We are veddy, veddy glad to be helping you. How are we to be of excellent servicing to you today?”
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