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Old 08-15-2015, 11:49 AM
kjc kjc is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: SF Bay Area, CA
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Interesting coincidence.

I worked for a start up company called Ventritex who designed implantible defibrillators from 85-97. I was the first of the engineering team and was responsible for the electronics (the "chip" design).
In 1997 we were acquired by St Jude medical who had no defibrillator technology. For about ten years after acquisition at least St Jude continued to use my electronics.

I'm just stating this to establish some form of credibility I guess.

Anyhow, you can be sure that no one at St Jude - or any other defibrillator manufacturer has tested their defibs alongside an arc welder.
Yes, when we design the electronics we do our best to suppress emi, but it's actually quite difficult for a number of reasons.

Clearly, what you don't want is for the device to inadvertently diagnose tachycardia, although its first response should be ATP (anti-tachycardia pacing) before it "ups the ante" to cardioversion or defibrillation. ATP is unlikely to bother you too much, but I would not want to receive an unnecessary defib shock. Again, these"tiered therapy" devices will shock at lower voltages first (after ATP), even so, best to avoid it.

I dunno, if it were me I would tend to stay away from the arc/tig welder. There's a lot of pleasure in becoming a good gas welder (not there myself but enjoying the journey), so why take the risk?

You'd also be surprised how many E.P. Docs know very little about the devices they implant - cardiac devices are hugely programmable with features and options but most devices get implanted at factory default settings! Your guy may be different, who knows?
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