Pacemaker Re-Use: an option in Sudan?

I met Dr.Zaheer Yousef and Balasundaram Lavan at Madani. This was at the 5^th Annual Scientific Conference of Sudan Heart Society during January 26-28, 2017. Dr.Zaheer Yousef is a Consultant Cardiologist at University Hospital of Wales and Cardiff University, U.K. He spent his childhood in Africa and thus wants to help cardiac patients in Africa and other developing countries who can’t afford to buy a new Pacemaker. He has joined hands with a charitable organization named Pace4Life (www pace4life.org). The gentleman on your right is Balasundaram Lavan who gave up his Investment Banking Career to start this organization. He collects used pacemakers when patient’s pass away with the consent of family members. With the cooperation from University of Massachusetts he gets the Pacemakers tested for battery life and gets them sterilized for re-use. This was there second visit to Sudan to implant recycled pacemakers for patients who can’t afford it. At the Cardiologists’ conference in Madani, Dr. Zaheer Yousef raised a few questions to the Sudanese Cardiologists: Do you think it’s safe to implant re-used pacemakers? Do you think re-used pacemakers should be implanted in Sudan? If one of your patients could not afford a pacemaker, would you be happy to offer them a re-used pacemaker? Would you still be happy to offer a re-used pacemaker, if the patient was a member of your family? I stand witness to this event where majority of the Cardiologists in Sudan responded positively in favour of using re-used pacemakers. Welcome pace4life again and again to Sudan.