Dear Raider,
In early December, I came across a post on Facebook that showed an X-ray of a dog with an implanted pacemaker. The post read:
“If you have a pacemaker, you can put it in your Will to have your pacemaker donated to a dog in need after you pass. Pacemakers cannot be donated to another human, but they can be donated to dogs with cardiac issues who would depend on it to stay alive.”
If this is true, I would be interested in donating my pacemaker to a dog in need upon my passing. Please let me know if this is something I am able to do and how to go about doing so.
Thanks for your help!
Donae Shunn
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Dear Donae,
The post you mentioned about donating a human pacemaker to a dog in need has been shared more than 1,000 times in a day, including on the Farr Law Firm Facebook page. This makes me glad as a dog that so many people are interested in helping canines who may need pacemakers to survive or to thrive!
On a very pawsitive note, the claim in the post has been found to be true. Pacemakers can, in fact, be donated for implantation in dogs and cats, greatly lowering the costs of cardiac care for canines. Dogs can use pacemakers similar to humans, and a human pacemaker works in dogs! And there are plenty of dogs that need pacemakers.
How Pacemakers Can Help Dogs and Cats
According to the National Institute of Health and veterinary clinics, 10 percent of all dogs and 75 percent of senior dogs die or suffer from congestive heart failure or heart disease each year. Pacemakers can make a world of difference for these dogs! One study from the University of Minnesota showed that 86 percent of dogs survived up to a year after the pacemaker was installed, with a 65 percent survival rate three years later. Dogs that have atrial standstill survived 866 days longer because of the pacemakers!
Donating a Human Pacemaker to a Dog or Cat Can Give the Furry Friend a Second Lease on Life
Unlike pacemaker donations to other humans, which are not legal currently in the United States but are in many other countries (please see today’s other article on donation of used pacemakers to humans), pacemaker donations to dogs and cats are legal. Whether a pacemaker can be donated depends on a number of factors, however, including the battery life left and its age. Programs to donate pacemakers for use in dogs in the US have been established in several universities, including the University of Georgia and the University of Missouri. The devices can be donated after death or after being upgraded. Medtronic, a pacemaker manufacturer, also promotes recycling devices for companion animals and donates as many as 300 pacemakers a year, but states that there’s a growing unmet need. In fact, they mention that they currently have a waiting list of more than 100 pet hospitals waiting for a pacemaker.
In Tennessee, for example, the University of Tennessee (UT) is state certified to implant human pacemakers in animals. The UT vet hospital outfits about six pacemakers a year in dogs and cats. UT first implanted pacemakers in animals in the early 1980s and states that pacemakers were first outfitted in animals in the 1970s.
As you can see, pacemakers for pets are very much needed. However, if you choose to donate to humans, the My Heart Your Heart program, hosted at the University of Michigan, can help with pacemaker donations to people overseas. Whether donated for human overseas or pets here in the United States, the Funeral Consumers Alliance notes that pacemaker donations can usually be coordinated with a funeral home.
How to Indicate that You’d Like to Donate Your Pacemaker to a Pet or a Human
Once you decide to donate your pacemaker to a pet domestically or a human overseas, indicating your wishes in your legal documents is important! An Advance Medical Directive authorizes another person to make decisions with respect to your medical care in the event that you are physically or mentally unable to do so. Whether or not you feel strongly about pacemaker donation or organ donation, it is important to make your intentions known in an Advance Medical Directive if you want your wishes to be honored. At the Farr Law Firm, the After-Death Directive portion of our 4 Needs Advance Medical Directive® addresses organ donation in detail and allows you to stipulate if you want your pacemaker and/or other internal medical devices donated. Please read today’s article for more details!
Thank you for considering giving life to another by donating your pacemaker to a furry friend or human!
Sincerely,
Raider
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