Pacemakers and Death: What Happens to Your Device?

Patients with arrhythmia have an irregular heartbeat rate or rhythm, and doctors often recommend that a patient with this condition have a pacemaker implanted in the chest to deliver electrical pulses to the heart, prompting it to beat at a normal rate. After a patient dies, these devices can either be left intact or removed.

Deactivation

• If a doctor pronounces a person with a pacemaker brain dead the doctor usually orders the pacemaker deactivated unless the patient or his surrogate has requested that it be removed or left intact.

Complications

• Some people feel that presence of a pacemaker can create an ethical dilemma. A pacemaker can continue to trigger the heart rhythm of a patient who has drawn his last breath, confusing doctors and family members about whether the patient is actually dead. The pacemaker can also prolong the life of a patient in a vegetative state.

Warning

• If a person dies and the family chooses to cremate the body, the pacemaker must first be removed. During cremations temperatures can reach 2,400 degrees F for 90 minutes. A gas forms, causing the pacemaker casing to explode. These explosions can cause costly structural damage to a crematorium and injure employees.