Friday, January 05, 2007

I want one

I was browsing my beloved pacemaker site again today and someone had posted about battery-free pacemakers. A company in the UK are hoping to make pacemakers that run on kinetic energy (I am trying to remember physics to know if this is the correct word!) so they generate energy as you move. I had thought for years this would be a great solution as I knew about watches powered by movement.

This is what it says:
Having one surgery is plenty, and having some foreign object implanted in your being is really pushing things, but knowing you're going to be under the knife every ten years or so to get a new battery is just absurd. Thankfully, a group of researchers in the UK feel the same way, and are well on their way to developing a battery-free pacemaker Reportedly, the device would use a microgenerator producing electricity every time the patient moves, effectively eliminating the need for an internal battery.

My only worry is how long do they charge for, what happens if I stay still too long, will me heart stop beating!?! Well I am sure the scientist will think of these things. Maybe I would have to do 100 star jumps every morning to charge myself up for the day.

So far I am on my 7th and I only expect that to last 5 years or so like the last one due to having old old leads. So to have one that lasts forever would fab. However with someone as young as myself there would still be a need for leads to be replaced but that's better than a new pacemaker every 5 - 10 years.

My only worry is that most pacemaker recipients are not as young as me and may only need one or two during their life. Is it really financially viable to create these pacemakers for the minority? Well if not the NHS will not fit them I know that for sure. So at the moment I will carry on trying to break the 24 pacemaker record, but will always be willing to trial one of these.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

You are a brave girl but then I am biased

Hev said...

Leads last about 20 years so thats not too bad, if my PM would recharged by conduction would I be able to go on trips like this. It would really weigh down my baggage to bring a charger!!

Unknown said...

Maybe you could power a pacemaker using some kind of wind turbine? Some people see to have quite a lot of excess gas.

Anonymous said...

100 star jumps every morning? Yeah right...

Nice bit of pidgin with 'old old pacemakers' - are we heading towards Pidgin-Heatherish?

Unknown said...

100 star jumps or die - might be the motivation you need?