SURGERY TOOK PLACE ON: October 20, 2017 for a 67 year old female. She has had a healthy weight, and good eating habits throughout life. Later in life it was discovered she had a LBBB that she was born with in 1949. At the age of 12 she told her mother, that her heart felt funny. Her mother said, nothing is wrong with your heart, go out and play. Dismissed.
She had surgery to implant a Dual Lead Pacemaker after decades of episodes of bradycardia, tachycardia and atrial fibrillation. It took years for a proper diagnosis.
Was a being female, the reason for the 'white coat' dismissal for a correct diagnosis for too many years? Her symptoms were often wrongly attributed to anxiety. Studies are showing that too often a woman's physical complaint about potential heart issues have been dismissed. Men are taken more seriously.
Sick sinus syndrome (SSS), also called sinus dysfunction, or sinoatrial node disease ("SND"), is a group of abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmia) presumably caused by a malfunction of the sinus node, the heart's primary pacemaker.
"A pacemaker consists of a small, battery-powered generator and one or more leads. In a single-chamber system, one lead is used, most commonly pacing the right ventricle. Dual-chamber pacemakers have two leads, placed in the right atrium and right ventricle." National Institute of Health.
Her leads were inserted in the left sub-clavian vein.
Progression of photographs from the day of the surgery to 2.5 months post surgery in January 2018.