SVH doctor installs state’s first next-generation pacemaker
0 Comment | Email | Print | 1389 views Aaron Burkhalter | Skagit Valley Herald
June 06, 2010 - 09:04 AM

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Submitted Photo

Dr. Sanjeev Wasson identifies the pacemaker he inserted Friday afternoon into his patient at Skagit Valley Hospital.

MOUNT VERNON — Dr. Sanjeev Wasson held in the palm of his hand a model of the pacemaker he had just installed into the chest of a patient.

He tossed the plastic device from hand to hand and displayed it between two fingers. It’s thinner than a cell phone and smaller than a Post-it note.

On May 28 at Skagit Valley Hospital, Wasson was the first in the state to install a Biotronik Evia. The pacemaker went into the chest of Stanwood resident Thomas Bownes, 70.

Bownes, who never had a pacemaker before, said he didn’t feel any different after the surgery, despite the two wires attached to his heart muscle that regulated his heartbeat.

Battery life is roughly double that of the earlier-generation pacemaker, reducing the number of future surgeries. Ultimately, Wasson said, the device improves patients’ health while reducing health-care costs.


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