Pacemaker DeActivation at End of Life?

[LemonCheesecake]

Does anyone have any experience of having a pacemaker deactivated at 'end of life'?

We have been old my 94 year old Dad's type of pacemaker cannot be deactivated (Dual Chamber fitted 2016 vv1)

British Heart Foundation and other groups suggest all pacemakers can be deactivated fairly easily by a cardiology specialist and doing so can improve the possibility of a calmer death.

Dad has been 'end of life' for 18 months now and I can't help thinking his pacemaker is keeping him alive, against his wishes!

Any comments, either way, would be really appreciated.

Thank you

[Hidden]

Dear LemonCheesecake

A warm welcome to you and your post, I hope that the forum will be able to answer your question to help relieve how the treatment for your beloved Dad can go on now that he has entered his palliative care stage of death.

First you need to know what sort of Pacemaker your father has and how it can be controlled the pacemaker team that placed it can give you those answers.

If it has a built in defibrillator then certainly that part can be switched off, as this I ask about before mine was fitted and he is fully in his rights to ask that same question and have it done.

If he has a non resuscitation order against him then this will be done as well.

I had cancer that has a high return rate, hence my enquiry .

Death has many stages and the heart stopping is just one of them, a pacemaker will not keep you alive if death has happened.

If your Dad is able to understand what is going on then it is totally down to him how he wishes his end to happen.

They cannot and will not { medical profession } do anything to assist his passing early, but they will make it as comfortable as possible.

My thoughts are with you all in this difficult time.

[LemonCheesecake in reply to Hidden]

thank you

[Lezzers]

Hi lemoncheesecake, I'm very sorry to hear about your dad, it's a very distressing time for you all. My understanding is all heart devices that have a defibrillator function are able to have this function turned off as end of life approaches, this is because it will be distressing for the device to keep shocking the heart when the heart itself isnt able to function. If his device doesn't have the defibrillator function then, as Blue1958 has said, his heart will naturally stop even if it's paced. Turning off the defibrillator is a fairly simple procedure, I do believe you can also have the whole device deactivated but that would be a question/discussion between your dad (or his representative if his cognitive function is impaired) & his medical team. My thoughts are with all.

[LemonCheesecake in reply to Lezzers]

thanks for you comments