Patient Story: Living 10+ Years with a Pacemaker in Bangladesh

*This story is a composite based on the experiences of many patients we have cared for over the years. Names and details are changed or combined, but the medical journey reflects what real Pacemaker patients in Bangladesh go through.*

The year my heart slowed down

My name is Abdul Karim, and in 2015 I was 62 years old, running a small wholesale fabric business in Islampur, and convinced that my tiredness was just age.

It started small. Climbing the stairs to my shop’s office left me winded when it never had before. I told myself I needed to walk more. Then one evening at home, I stood up from dinner and the room went dark for a few seconds. My wife caught my arm. I remember being embarrassed more than scared.

The second blackout came three weeks later, this time in front of my son. He refused to discuss anything except seeing a doctor the next morning.

An ECG at a clinic near our house showed something called Complete heart block. My heart’s natural wiring had failed. The top half was beating fine, but the signal wasn’t reaching the bottom half, so my heart was pumping only about 30 times a minute. The doctor explained that the fainting would continue, and that one day a pause might not end on its own.

I want to be honest about what I felt hearing that. Fear, yes. But also a strange relief. For two years I had been told I was simply getting old. There was finally a name for it, and apparently a fix.

Getting the pacemaker

The word “Surgery” frightened me. In my imagination they would open my chest. Nobody had told me the procedure is done under local anesthesia while you lie awake on the table.

The cardiologist made a small cut below my left collarbone, threaded thin wires through a vein into my heart, and placed the device, roughly the size of a large wristwatch face, under the skin. I felt pressure and pulling but no pain. It took about ninety minutes. I asked questions during the whole thing, mostly to keep myself calm, and the team answered all of them.

That night in the hospital I kept touching the little bump under my skin. My heartbeat was 68. I lay there listening to my own pulse like it was someone else’s.

I went home after two days with instructions: keep the left arm low for four weeks, no lifting heavy bags of fabric (my son took over the shop’s loading), come back for the first device check in a month.

The scar healed into a thin line. Within six weeks I had almost stopped noticing the device was there.

What the first years felt like

The change was not dramatic, it was the absence of drama. I stopped planning my day around where I could sit down. I went back to walking to Chawkbazar with the other old men from the mosque, then found I was keeping up with them instead of trailing behind.

There were adjustments. Airport metal detectors beep now; I carry a device card and ask for a hand search. My phone stays out of my left shirt pocket. Before an MRI of my knee last year, the technician confirmed my model was MRI-conditional, and the scan went ahead without trouble.

Device checks every six months take twenty minutes. A machine reads the battery and every recorded heartbeat, and the technician tells me the same thing nearly every time: everything normal, battery excellent.

Year seven: the scare that taught me the system works

In 2022 I fainted again, once, at home. My family panicked, assuming the pacemaker had failed.

It hadn’t failed. The Check-Up revealed I had developed a new Rhythm problem on top of the old one, atrial fibrillation, which medication now controls. The pacemaker had actually been recording everything during those months, and that record helped my cardiologist adjust treatment quickly. Ten days later I was back to my routine.

What stayed with me was how differently my family handled that faint compared to 2015. This time there was no helplessness. We knew who to call, we knew the clinic had my full history, and we knew the device was watching even between visits. That confidence is worth more than I expected.

Where I am now

I am 73. I walk forty minutes most mornings. I have made Umrah twice since the implant, including once last year. My grandchildren were 8 and 11 when I got the device; they are now finishing school and college, and both have grown up thinking Dada’s little beeping machine is completely ordinary, because to them it is.

The battery is projected to last another three or four years. When replacement comes, I know exactly what it involves, because I asked long ago. It is a simpler procedure than the first one.

If you have just been told you need a pacemaker, here is what ten years has taught me:

• The fear before the procedure is far worse than the procedure itself.
• The first month requires patience; after that, life expands rather than shrinks.
• Choose your follow-up clinic as carefully as you choose the device. The relationship lasts decades.
• Keep your device card with your important papers, and tell your family which clinic monitors you.
• A pacemaker does not make you fragile. Mine has outlasted two monsoons’ worth of predictions from relatives that I should “rest more.”

I sometimes think about the man I was in 2015, standing up from dinner and watching the room go dark, too embarrassed to complain. I wish I could go back and tell him how unremarkable the next decade would turn out to be.

Rhythm Care Ltd cares for pacemaker patients across every stage of that journey, from first diagnosis to battery changes years later. If you or someone in your family has questions about life with a pacemaker, book a consultation or call +880 1819-227038.

FAQ

How long do pacemakers typically last?

Modern devices run 8 to 12 years depending on how much pacing they do. Replacement involves changing the generator only, usually a shorter procedure than the original implant.

Can pacemaker patients travel for Hajj or Umrah?

Yes, routinely. Carry your device card, inform Security staff, and get a check-up before long trips. Thousands of Bangladeshi pilgrims travel with pacemakers each year.

Does a pacemaker need special care at home?

No special care. Keep mobile phones and strong magnetic tools about 15 cm away from the device, attend scheduled checks, and tell any doctor or technician about the implant before procedures.