The Awesome Pacemaker                                                  
Hi everyone.Welcome to my post on the pacemaker!
      Firstly, the pacemaker is used on people who have abnormal heart rhythms.These people normally suffer from arrhythmia, a condition when a person's heart beats too fast or slow irregularly.
     Well, then who is the inventor of pacemakers? Some say it is Dr. Albert Hyman while others argue that it was a duo by the names of Mark Lidwell and Major Edgar Booth.However, whoever it is, this idea came about when it was realised that electrical impulses causes our heart to beat.To make things simple, it was not until 1960 did Wilson Greatbatch and William Chardack invented the first effective implantable pacemaker in USA.
     During an operation, the physician will first gain access to the vein under the collarbone and one or more leads,the thin wire-like tube shown on the right, is pushed into the heart.It sounds really scary and bloody right?Well, if it means a life, then it's not so bad after all.
     So what causes arrhythmia which result in the use of pacemakers? Some possible reasons could be caused by aging or heart diseases(look here for more information) that damages the body's ability to  set the correct pace for the heartbeat.Another cause could be the consumption of certain heart medicines like beta blockers.These medicines can slow the heartbeat of a person.Lastly, there could be heart muscle problems that cause electrical signals to travel too slowly through the heart muscle.
     Now the dying question.How do pacemakers work.Basically, the pacemaker consist of the battery, computerised generator and sensors at the tip of the lead. the sensors will send data to the computer in the generator. When the heart rhythm is abnormal, the computer will get the generator to send electric pulses to the heart.(more detailed information can be found here)

So here we have the pacemaker!

 Credits:
1. National Institute of Health
2.University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill  
3.Medical News Today 
4. Standford Hospital and Clinics