Thursday, September 18, 2008

Device helps keep heart in sync, sends text to doctor

"Gary Claiborne had not been to a doctor in almost 20 years, until his first heart attack in 1991. But now, he gets a heart checkup once a day - without stepping in to a physician's office. Claiborne, of Fairview, was the first patient in Tennessee to have a new heart device implanted in his chest. The stopwatch-size device will perform daily tests on his heart to make sure the chambers beat in sync and at the best pace. It has a mouthful of a name: cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator. Simply put, it sends a shock to put an errant heartbeat back into normal rhythm, and delivers a text message to a doctor's cell phone if something is wrong" - The Tennessean

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