Former Discovery Community Forum committee member and Cansa Roodepoort manager Isabel Gomes, who traded her volunteer hats for that of an undertaker as the local representative of Sureway Funerals, came up with a novel plan to contribute to the local community, reports Roodepoort Record.

“We’ve come across a unique problem,” said Gomes. “When a person with a pacemaker passes away, it is left in place in a normal burial, but since most people nowadays opt to be cremated, pacemakers have to be removed before the procedure.

“Pacemakers are wildly expensive, and cannot be reused in another person.

“Most families don’t want the pacemakers, so we ended up having a lot of these devices.”

Gomes did some research and found out that the devices can also be used in animals.

“I came up with the idea to donate the pacemakers to a veterinary hospital,” said Gomes, adding that she became so busy that she completely forgot about the idea until her own dog, Zeuss, suffered a medical emergency.

“We rushed Zeuss to the Florida Veterinary Hospital, and once he was out of the woods, it occurred to me that we still had all those pacemakers in a box at the office.”

Not one to rest on her laurels, Gomes discussed the idea with Dr Menante Botha, who was excited at the prospect.

“We believe compassion doesn’t end – it continues to give,” said Gomes.

“We are honoured to share that we have handed over donated pacemakers to the Florida Veterinary Hospital, where their specialist team will use them to save the lives of animals in need.

“These donated devices will assist families who love their animals deeply but may not be able to afford a life-saving pacemaker procedure.”

Gomes added that Florida Veterinary Hospital agreed to only charge for the procedure when implanting a donated pacemaker in a pet, and not for the device itself.

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