Hello, I'm new here. Was referred by the Epilepsy Foundation eCommunities. My 65 yr old husband received a VNS implant last Apr 06. Doesn't seem as tho' implant is working for him but he has faith that one day "it will kick in" and do its job. Meanwhile, hubby had what appeared to be a black out last Tuesday, fell and hit his head hard. Took him to ER and he received 7 staples. All the tests were ran; i.e. EKG, Chest X-ray, brain x-ray, and blood work. ER doc told us that it appeared as though everytime the implant "came on", my husband's heart rate went down. He thinks that may have caused the black out.

Has anyone experienced such a thing? Your responses will be greatly appreciated.

Blessings to all,
Marilyn

According to the Physician's Manual, ♦ Heart rate and rhythm changes
IS an adverse event. It can and does happen. Scott (my Mod's son) blood pressure would drop and his heart rate would decrease when his VNS fired. As soon as it was removed, his problems stopped. His story is in the pediatric forums.

If your husband's VNS is causing cardiac problems he needs to be seen ASAP.

There are a few options available but he needs to discuss them with his doctor. Cardiac events should never be taken lightly and in light of the recent event, he really needs to be fully evaluated.

When the VNS is implanted, it is supposed to be tested to help rule out possible cardiac problems. Since this has happened over a year past his implantation, something else may be contributing to this.

I hope this has given you some insight, if you haven't downloaded the manuals, I suggest you do and read them, please. They list most of the possible side effects even though the list is somewhat ambigious.

Please let us know how you husband does. He is not alone with his issues.

Hello and welcome. I'm Fay, the Mom of the teen Birdbomb told you about. I don't have anything to add other than I'll pray for him (and you!) and hope that everything works out ok for him soon. Please try to seek help with this as soon as possible. Scott's blood pressure would drop without warning then he'd have cerebral hypoxia attacks which required oxygen several times a day plus constant pulse ox monitoring. It was very scary especially at night while he was sleeping cause it was harder to see what was going on. This even continued to happen AFTER they turned his VNS totally off in 2003. So far he hasn't had any low pressure or any cerebral hypoxia attacks since the day he had the VNS removed (Oct 6, 2006). After the VNS was removed the Neurosurgeon told me that we were very lucky that Scott's vagus nerve wasn't ripped apart because the scar tissue hd grown around and built up on the neck and the nerve and had pulled the vagus nerve out of the neck muscle sheath and had imbedded it into his neck and chest muscles. Scott couldn't move his neck correctly without pain and feeling it pull. The neurosurgeon told me all it would have taken to completely rip the nerve in half was for Scott to turn his head a hair more than he did or a tiny tap anywhere on the neck where the nerve was resting right under his skin. His vagus nerve was being pulled that much. He was able to remove the generator and most of the two lead wires but they couldn't remove the two coils that are wrapped around the nerve so had to leave a tiny amount of the wires which they then capped the ends and then simply tucked them back into the neck sheath where the vagus nerve belongs. Hopefully the coils and the tiny capped lead wires won't cause any problems. There was too much scar tissue and our neurosurgeon felt it wasn't safe enough to try to remove them cause he couldn't see the coils due to the scar tissue. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I hope that you will keep us posted on your hubby.

Marilyn,
I answered your post over at the EFA board, but I will answer again here.
You started there that your husbands seizures have gotten worse, since the implant, mine did as well.
I have a very hard time getting a deep breath, it felt like somebody was sitting on my chest all the time.
As I said over at the efa boards, I taped the magnet to my chest to see if things got better when it was off. Things got much better, so I had it turned off.
I like your husband, wanted so much for the thing to work, but I waited to long to have it turned off.
By the time we were done "playing" with it, trying to make the settings right I was left with left sided nerve damage in my face.
Please, please call and discuss this with your doctor right away.