Technical Welding with ICD Implant

My son is a engineer for Chrysler. Part of his job is coming up with the service manuals. After finishing one on the gen 3 hemi he now has to do one for the latest electric vehicles. He wanted to know if the generators rf could cause issues. The only data out there covers driving not servicing. I think he just took on a new project. This info is needed for the service techs and general public. It's something to think about if you are around these new cars and want to look under the hood.

There are two kinds of implantable devices.
Pace makers provide a electrical stimulus to create a mechanical action. That being a heart beat. Rf can put the pace maker into the inhibit mode. This stops the electrical stimulus. For someone pacer dependent this interruption could be fatal.

The other device in a implantable defibrillator. This device detects fatal heart rhythms. It provides a shock to the heart to basically reset the electrical activity. Rf with this device can produce inappropriate shocks. A shock at the wrong time can cause a fatal heart rhythm in some situations. The devise should detect this rythem and shock again. In a very compromised patient they might not survive the event. Like I said in previous posts call your devices customer support line.

 

I started a thread on this about 1 year ago and got many different responses. When I finally got down to having my defibrillator/pacemaker installed this last spring I had a very in depth discussion with not only the surgeon but the manufacturer rep. Both had the same consensus that I would be able to weld with my Tig as long as I stayed below 160 amps. Since the devise install and when the healing process was complete my wife (moral support) and I went out to my shop and I fired up the tig and ran several beads with no problems. Since that I have built a 1/2 dozen customer ch***is with no problems. I only tack the ch***is together and then I have a certified Tig welder that comes in and finish welds the ch***is. I have not tried my Mig as I haven't fired it up in several years. This is my personal experience and may not work for everyone.

 

Most say you can mig arms extended.

 

Your avatar is enough to give a heart attack! Too much blood flowing to lower regions...

 

I'm trying to stimulate some natural conductivity again with it, still not working 5 yrs later, thanks to God I'm still here though.

 

Now that really is funny and a little bit of humor in a serious subject is good at times.

 

Couple thoughts here. Many of the newer welders are inverter machines instead of transformers, so I wonder if the problem is caused by the power supply or the current from the welding guns.

Second thing.....has anyone ever tried placing a comp*** near their welder to see what happens?
Seems like that should give some indication of magnetic flux . (Pun intended)

Wonder why operating a body grinder or similar tool that's near your chest doesn't cause a problem?

 

It does with me, I definitely feel it (get nauseous) and constantly have to be aware but my situation is different from most people with a pacemaker.
First time I did it by mistake was when I was drilling out an upper hinge bolt, I leaned in to put some weight behind it and of course leaned my pacer right behind the drill. Tonight I was under the Henry J bolting the trans to the crossmember using one of those magnetic base rechargeable lights to see with (the light comes with a warning about use around a pacemaker) it seems I constantly wanted to see directly where that light was shining and of course that put the light right at my shoulder.

 

Thanks Swade41, now I have to call 911! I told you about your avatar!!!