Yeah, but that's probably wrong.
When my wife got her pacemaker installed the doctor said the battery in them lasted about 10 years. It was 12 1/2 years later when the battery got low enough to qualify for a new pacemaker. And that's with it pacing 95% of the time.

Well, two comments:

First, the story of the conductor's experience is over 20 years old. I presume the technology has moved a bit : )

And second, the batteries aren't that perfect. A friend of mine woke up last summer, less than a year after getting a pacemaker, with a shrill beep-beep-beep coming from his chest, which rapidly turned into to "beeeeoooo...ooo...errr...errr...." and halted. (the beeping is supposed to give months of notice, not minutes) The battery was just a bad one, and they had him into surgery within an hour for a replacement. Back home by dinnertime, with some killer bruises.

Fairly young guy, too. His first heart symptom was his heart stopping for 22 minutes. Keeled over while teaching a class, and an off-duty EMT happened to be walking by the doorway at the time. He looks pretty good for a dead guy.

Jim