"A backup lifesaver": UC Davis Health doctor helps kids with unique pacemaker
DAVIS — Merrin McCormick is back on the tennis court, but this time, the 17-year-old has a little help with a device you'd never even know she has.
"When we first had the diagnosis, it came about really just through a school lab. They were just testing heart rates, and her heart rate was double what everyone else's was," said Merrin's dad, Jeff.
That led them to UC Davis Health and Dr. Daniel Cortez.
"This is basically a pacemaker, the battery, whole thing without having to have that long lead or, kind of, the weakness of the system," said Dr. Cortez as he showed the device to CBS13.
Dr. Cortez is the UC Davis Health director of pediatric electrophysiology and a world-leading expert in installing leadless pacemakers in children. They're smaller and without all the wires in traditional devices.
"You have all these issues with wires where kids move around, they play too much, they can break the wire very easily even within months or a few years of implanting the pacemaker sometimes," said Dr. Cortez.
"It's just this little thing. It's like, 'Wow!' This little thing that they can just stick in there, and you know, connect to our heart can be sort of like a backup lifesaver," said Jeff.
For Merrin, it's a lifesaver and what's also helping her live her life like she always did.
"It was pretty rough. I played soccer for about 10 years without ever taking a season off. And then suddenly, I couldn't do it for a full year," Merrin said. "I'm grateful that I get to have a pacemaker, but I can keep doing sports with because it's really important to me to keep playing sports."
A traditional pacemaker is about the size of a matchbox. This new one can be as small as a pill and has a longer battery life of up to 20 years.
Many physicians in Northern California are trained to implant the device in adults through the leg vein. Cortez is the first doctor in Northern California to implant it through a vein on the side of the neck. That means a smaller incision and an easier recovery.