Colorado Dog Lover Urges People To Donate Their Pacemakers to Pups When They Pass On

Pacemakers are single-use only. The Food and Drug Administration prohibits the use of recycled heart devices, mainly due to concerns about infections. A lot of people who use a pacemaker are interested in these life-saving devices being recycled and donated when they pass, and depending on battery life you may be able to donate your pacemaker for use in other countries. But there's another option for people in the US, which is donating your pacemaker after your death to save another type of life.

The life of a dog who has cardiac issues.

One person who would like his pacemaker to be passed on to a dog-in-need is Colorado resident Joe Suchman, an Akita breeder who loves dogs and wants to help one who needs a pacemaker after he passes. Denver7 reports, Dr. Pamela Lee, a veterinary cardiologist with the VRCC Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Hospital in Englewood, explained, "With pacemakers from humans, a lot of times, you don’t necessarily want to implant them from people to people because you can transmit diseases,” Lee explained. “Transmitting diseases interspecies is much less common, and so implanting something from a human to another species is a lot safer."

Related: The Science Behind Dog Health Couldn't Be More Fascinating

The article goes on to explain that if you want to donate your own pacemaker to a dog after you pass, it requires conversations with one’s family, local veterinarians and funeral planners since there isn’t currently an officially recognized donation process.

The American Heart Association states that research has found that many of these devices have five to 10 years of battery life left once they've been removed. In addition, a study published last year in the World Journal of Cardiology shows that more than 9 out of 10 people with pacemakers would donate them to others in need if given the chance.

The The Medical Center, Navicent Health, or MCNH, and the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine do have a donation program where people can donate their used pacemakers to canine heart patients and since the program began in 2018, 41 pacemakers have been donated for patients at UGA.

Depending on the battery life, condition and age of your pacemaker, you may be eligible to donate it to a dog. There are two common ways people transfer their pacemakers to a dog. The first is to have your will modified so that when you pass away, there are instructions to have it removed and sent to the clinic of your choice. The other is to request your doctor save the pacemaker for donation when yours is being replaced or upgraded.

What a wonderful consideration for any pacemaker owner who wants the chance to extend a dog's life.

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