On Sunday morning,Francis Bakk, sister of my deceased brother in law,Orville Bakk, called her cousin Margaret Bakk Thornton in Madison, S.Dak. Margaret in turn called me in Sun City,Arizona. A paacemaker company called Guidant seemed to has suppressed reports on device failures in the past. The story goes on for four pages plus a picture and the story ends like this.

The bottom line

The seemingly esoteric stastics have real life repercussions for patients.

Raymond Rye, 73, who suffers from coronary atery disease, is now on his third
defibrillator, after Guidant Ventnak Prizm device was replaced Thursday at United
Hospital's John Nassiff Heart Hospital in St. Paul.
Left on its own, Rye's heart beats about 30 times per minute--compared with a normal heart rate of 70.
"Because he's dependent on the pacemaker part of his defribillator, he can't afford to have it fail," said Dr.Greg Granrud. So the decision to replace Rye's device was fairly straight forward, and Rye was more than happy to place his trust in his doctors.
The Eau Claire, Wis., resident said that he doesn't need more information,
from his device ccompanies regarding his ICD> "If I got all the information, I wouldn't understand it anyway," he said.
After Graanrud slid the Prizm defibrillator out of Rye's chest in a procedure that lasted a little over an hour, it was set aside so it could be sent back to the company for testing.
The story included a picture of Ray on the front page.Ray is my younger brother and I also have a younger sister, vivian Rye Helgeson in Minnesota.
I visted both of them in June in the company of my grandnephew,
Todd Nelson, son of Barara and Dr. Roger Nelson.
Incidentally, Don Hegeson, my brother in law had his Guidant pacemaker replaced the 2nd of July this year. Two out of two is not bad.
After receiving the call I called Ray in Wis.and he was sitting in his recliner resting nicely and said he was doing okay.