Don Foreman wrote:


He looked at me oddly. He said that if the ICD were erroniously
tripped it would feel like being kicked in the chest by a mule.
I think most of this is a bunch of bull, because the makers of the
ICD have no idea what it will do in this case. The electric field
of the HF will not penetrate the body, although the leads are
usually buried pretty shallowly from the unit across the chest.
But, the unit has very strong filters to remove non-heart
frequencies from the input that it is processing, to extract only
the muscle pulse. However, it is definitely programmed to
detect big electrical pulses as the use of an external defibrillator in
the hands of a trained expert, and just shut off completely for
a few minutes to allow medical personnel to perform what they need
to do without any automated interference.

So, my guess is that the only way to interfere with the ICD is
possibly to allow the HF to zap to your arm on the side where the
ICD unit was placed. Well, that COULD happen, I've done it
myself. The HF arc sure looks mean, but through clothing, it
really doesn't feel that impressive. The HF just doesn't have
anywhere near the signature of fibrillating heart muscle.
The arc currents when welding with AC might, but that would be
mostly magnetic field, not electric. And, you said your
tests showed the magnetic field was not a problem.

Anyway, If I'd been in the same situation, I would have had
somebody with me the first time, and showed them how to turn
the machine off, and be ready to call 911 if I did get the
ICD to trigger. it is supposed to be quite a jolt, and leave
you pretty well buzzed for a while. Well, now you can report
back to the company that you had no problem.

Jon