2006-09-08 01:27:42 · 6 answers · asked by mamma 1 in Health ➔ Other - Health
No. A pacemaker is little more than a machine that discharges regular pulses of electricity to make your heart beat in a steady rhythmic way, which is what "normal" hearts can do on their own (and people still die even if their heart is capable of beating normally on its own).
Therefore if you are dying of any disease that is not directly related to the need to have a steady heartbeat then a pacemaker will not keep you alive.
Even death by most heart diseases won't be prevented by a pacemaker, such as damaged heart valves, constriction of the arteries, damaged or diseased heart muscle etc etc.
To look at it the other way round, if a person died from, say, a tumour their heart would keep beating because of the pacemaker but that wouldn't mean they were alive - just that their heart was still beating. Death isn't signified by a heart stopping beating so much as by brain death.
So basically, if all you had wrong with you is a heart that wouldn't beat properly then the pacemaker would cure it and you wouldn't be on your deathbed in the first place!
2006-09-08 01:30:48 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It depends on the nature of the illness. If a pacemaker is keeping your heart going because of an underlying heart condition it's likely that it'll keep you alive. If you have widespread cancer that has damaged the heart muscle then a pacemaker will make no difference.
2006-09-08 01:30:47 · answer #2 · answered by Blue Jean 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. A pacemaker only sends the same signal to the heart muscle that all the cells of the heart muscle send to each other, to make them all flex at the exact same time. It doesn't provide energy to the heart, nor any kind of chemicals. If your heart quits beating, the pace maker won't help. It only does what it's name implies-- keeps a pace for your heart rate. But a friend of mine's dad had an internal defribulator placed on his heart, so when his heart skips a beat or stops beating, it sends an electrical shock to his heart automatically. He has this wire running out of his chest that connects to a little monitor and power supply that fits in his pocket.
2006-09-08 01:33:49 · answer #3 · answered by Rockstar 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have a better question....can you keep a cut-off head alive indefinitely by replenishing blood supply? Has this been done before by the russians, as rumour had it awhile back?
This has haunted me for years to no end.
2006-09-08 01:40:13 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. My grandfather was basically dead. As soon as they shut his pacemaker off, he was dead.
2006-09-08 01:34:28 · answer #5 · answered by St♥rmy Skye 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No because i am suffering from cancer. Keep walking.
2006-09-08 01:29:29 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋