VA Leading the Way: The first pacemaker to groundbreaking surgeries

For 79 years, VA has delivered innovative health care to America’s Veterans. VA researchers developed the cardiac pacemaker and the nicotine patch, and VA surgeons performed the first successful liver transplant. VA continues to lead the way in health care innovation and was recently named one of the top 10 rising research institutions in North America.

The first cardiac pacemaker

In 1960, VA researchers—led by Dr. William Chardack of Buffalo VA—created the cardiac pacemaker, a small electronic device that can be implanted in a patient’s chest to help stabilize abnormal heart rhythms. Chardack described the original pacemaker as a “battery-operated gadget about twice as big as a spool of Scotch tape and much the same shape.”

Although surgical techniques and pacemaker technologies evolved over the years, the basic design remains similar to the device introduced to the medical world by Chardack and his collaborators in 1960.

Today, VA offers state-of-the-art pacemakers to Veteran patients, including one of the newest pacemaker designs, the dual-chamber leadless pacemaker technology. The leadless system consists of two tiny pacemakers, each smaller than a AAA battery, inserted via a catheter in a large vein in the thigh and secured in the upper and lower heart chambers.

Living a full, healthy life is possible with a pacemaker. Learn more about pacemakers and how those in need of one can prepare for the procedure at Pacemakers | Veterans Affairs (va.gov).

Veteran receives dual-chamber pacemaker

More than three million Americans live with pacemakers. One of those Americans is Air Force Veteran Bryce De Witt, a healthy father of four. In 2022, at 35, he began to experience heart palpitations. After consistently being dismissed by providers who labeled his symptoms as anxiety, DeWitt was urged to visit his local VA in San Francisco.

“They took me very seriously. It was VA that got me on the right track,” he said. De Witt’s doctor told him that he, “Should’ve received a pacemaker 11 months ago.” Right away, his provider scheduled him for a pacemaker surgery.

While the pacemaker De Witt received addressed the problems with the upper chamber of his heart, he required a second pacemaker to fix the problems in the lower chamber of his heart. The two pacemakers work together to normalize the heart’s rhythm. This procedure was only offered at a few hospitals in the country at the time, including the Michael E. DeBakey VA in Houston.

Read the story of how De Witt’s VA doctors collaborated to get him the care he needed at Two doctors… 2,000 miles apart – VA News.

There are four ways to apply for VA health care: Online, by phone, by mail or in-person. Visit VA’s health care website for more information.