by Kelsey Warren-Bryant | Photos courtesy of Pixabay
In 1958 in Stockholm, Sweden, the first cardiac pacemaker was implanted in a human. It did not take veterinary scientists long to discover the beneficial implications the device had for nonhuman patients too.
Basenji, the First Canine Patient
In 1967, a 10-year-old dog named Basenji became the first nonhuman patient to receive a pacemaker. The surgery was performed by veterinary cardiologist Dr. James Buchanan from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Basenji was an ideal candidate for the procedure, having experienced recurrent congestive heart failure because of a complete heart block.
Although Basenji’s pacemaker had been used previously by a human patient and had only an 18-month battery life, it continued to function well past its life span. For five years, Basenji lived a normal and healthy life. He received his last pacemaker implantation at age 15 before his death from an unrelated health condition.
Veterinary Pacemaker Surgeries Today
Today, it’s a common practice for veterinary cardiologists to implant pacemakers into animals with life-threatening heart conditions. The issue for veterinarians lies not with performing the surgery but with the cost of the devices. A new pacemaker can cost thousands of dollars. Many human patients have medical insurance to absorb a large portion of the cost. For pet owners, however, the out-of-pocket expense is often insurmountable.
In most cases, used pacemakers cannot be used again in other human patients. Because of that and the fact that pacemaker surgery for animals did not immediately catch on, very few options existed for disposal of a pacemaker when it was replaced. Many pacemakers were simply thrown away.
That is what inspired the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine to establish CanPacers in 1991, a formal program created to support veterinary hospitals. CanPacers partners with Medtronic, a company that manufactures pacemakers, to provide leads for used pacemakers and other medical supplies to veterinary hospitals across the nation. CanPacers describes this mission on the homepage of its website:
“Our mission is to provide new cardiac pacemakers and leads from Medtronic for veterinary patients.”
CanPacers charges a few hundred dollars per pacemaker to cover shipping and veterinary cardiology research — a much more manageable price for many pet owners to handle.
Organizations such as CanPacers make access to pacemakers for animals easier, but sadly, there are still far more patients than available devices. The ability to donate pacemakers to animals is still not always common knowledge, and many used pacemakers get thrown away or buried with the wearers when they die.
How To Donate a Pacemaker
For those who want to donate a pacemaker, here are some ways to go about it. You may ask the doctor to save the pacemaker when it is being replaced or upgraded and then send the pacemaker directly to Medtronic. Medtronic encourages the recycling of its used pacemakers. Some of the returned devices are retained for research purposes, but many are donated.
To send a pacemaker to Medtronic, simply request a free biohazard kit on the Medtronic website and mail it back. There is no charge for shipping. The link for requesting a free biohazard kit can be found at https://www.medtronic.com/en-us/l/patients/patient-services/return-explanted-products-form.html.
The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, and the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine also accept donated pacemakers. Other veterinary hospitals or universities can also be contacted.
You also can request in your will that your pacemaker be removed on your death and donated to your institution of choice, thus increasing the chance of saving an animal’s life.
