GERMANY: They've been singing for years about love letters straight from the heart, but now German doctors have developed a pacemaker that can detect heart problems in the wearer and send an SOS text message straight from the heart to a doctor.
The SMS-Pacemaker was developed at St Joseph's Hospital in Potsdam, outside Berlin, and resembles a normal pacemaker, but for a small built-in antenna.
Every evening, the pacemaker transmits important blood-flow data from the day to a nearby mobile phone, which then forwards the information as a text message to the hospital for monitoring.
"I can sleep easy at night because I know that the SMS-Pacemaker will save my life in an emergency," said Mr Peter Nowak (62), one of the first men to be fitted with the device, to Germany's Bild newspaper.
Developers of the device, say the constant monitoring could prevent heart problems before they begin.
The daily data check of blood flow through the heart's ventricles is a vast improvement on the annual pacemaker checks, said Dr Frantz.
In the case of irregular blood flow or other difficulties, the pacemaker is programmed to send a special SOS message to the hospital.
