Heart device shocks woman in flood

SOME visually impaired people have not left their homes since the weekend floods, except Wayne Martinez who had to take his wife, Melissa Bengochea, 36, to a doctor to re-set an electronic implant in her chest.

The woman almost died when the Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) shocked her in flood waters which had reached her chest, outside their Guaico, Tamana home, on Saturday. The ICD became water-logged and set the woman’s heart racing over 200 beats per minute, husband Wayne Martinez, 50, told Newsday Wednesday.

The woman collapsed in the flood trying to carry her blind husband to safety.

A craft instructor at the Blind Welfare Association, Port of Spain, Martinez told Newsday how they confronted the flood at home where they live with their 16-year-old daughter, Kyla. Heavy rains started on Thursday, he said, and by Saturday it had continued and in front their house the water was four feet high.

“When water hit the third treader of the step, my wife say ‘let we get out the house because it was 3 ‘o clock and the rain eh stop falling,’” Martinez said.

Placing his hand on his wife’s left shoulder, they stepped gingerly outside. Kyla followed but Martinez said, “the current was pulling everybody.”

Born with a weak heart, doctors inserted an ICD in Melissa’s chest to maximise her heart rate. She panicked, she said, when the water almost swept them away, husband Martinez’ hands gripping her left arm. “I think I panicked because the water was making all this noise. It was just under my waist. Then suddenly, I got shock and my heart start to race off. The ICD makes my heart beat 60 beats per minute.”

Melissa said that a neighbour, Wayne Williams, rushed out of his house to help. But when he lifted her, he got shock as well. She said, “I think it is because he was soaking wet also.” The first shock, she said, sent her heart racing 185 beats per minute which was dangerously high. By the time the neighbour had lifted her and husband Martinez into his house, Melissa’s heart rate had crossed 200.

Melissa is also short-sighted and husband Martinez said that she became so weak, she almost collapsed in his arms. The woman had to be rushed to a doctor who re-set the ICD and inserted a new battery. Since the incident, Kyla said, her mummy has been very weak and it seems, her heart rate had not yet stabilised.

The family lost appliances and Kyla, her school books. Anyone desirous of helping the family can call on 397-6942/398-0074