Kevin has a wearable defibrillator called a life vest. This is an interim measure whilst they worked on resolving the stroke issues. Easier to wear this thing for several months than to have the surgery for a pacemaker/defibrillator that subsequently is not needed. This thing will also alarm if it detects an abnormal condition prior to firing off the defib. Once the alarm goes off, the patient is required to “pinch” buttons that are on each side of it to disarm the defibrillator. If the patient is unconscious, or otherwise unable to pinch it, the defib will activate.
His vest alarmed on Sunday morning. He was able to pinch it but things got really exciting from then on. Everyone in the house was leaping about trying to figure out what the noise was, especially Kevin as he was sleeping when it alarmed. Quite a loud alarm, it is. We were able to get Zoll to send the EKG traces so we could print them out. Zoll said the alarm condition was due to high heart rate. We then took Kevin back to Upper Chesapeake ER. He was home for about 36 hours.
Being a frequent flyer, Kevin got up to a room rather quickly. As a matter of fact, he went right back to the same room he was in on Thursday and Friday but in the other bed.
Now the cardiologist are gonna start working on his heart condition. Finally. So, we spent Sunday in UC getting him settled in and on the correct medications.
This morning, his vest alarmed again, also for high heart rate, however, the staff said their telemetry didn’t agree on that. Therefore, the veracity of the vest is in doubt. Kevin said that he’d spoken to Zoll and authorized them to speak with his medical team to tweak the config on the vest.