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Medical ZAP! question


Alpo

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If you zapped someone with a defibrillator, and their heart was working normally, what would the ZAP!!! do to him?

 

TV show. Bad guy chasin' 'em through the horspital, and the good guy picked up the paddles from a nearby machine and zapped him. Bad guy got thrown twenty feet down the hall and the good guys escaped. Yay.

 

But it got me wondering. If you zapped someone that was NOT in fibrillation, what would it do to him?

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I have no flippin' idea, 'ceptin to say, "Probably wouldn't do him much good!" :-)

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If your heart is not in Vfib, the machine won't deliver a charge.

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So did I. Thought it was like a simple electrical circuit. Got your positive in your right hand and your negative in the left, and you push the button ZAP!!!

 

What does the heart beating right or not got to do with an electrical circuit?

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If it is an AED, and you are not in V-fib, it recommends no shock. If you had a regular defibrillator, the shock actually stops the heart. With any luck, the heart restarts it's self in a normal heart rhythm. But the shock will knock you on your a$$ never the less.

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The early defibrillators, on which I was trained on had to use occasionally on an animal, did not have the sensing function. The doctor would read the patient's heart on an EKG and decide when to use the defibrillator. On those older machines, we were trained to make sure no one was in contact with the patient or his bed when triggering the current. I never had the opportunity thank goodness to use one of the more modern defibrillators on a human.

 

The idea behind a defibrillator of course it to completely depolarize all the heart muscle at the same time, in the hopes that the heart's normal pacemaker will re-establish a normal beat cycle. Sometiimes it works, sometimes not. The amount of current used was increased slightly after each unsuccessful attempt. In a veterinary lab environment, many years ago as I recall, it might take 25 attempts to defibrillate a dog's heart successfully. I do not know what the record is for humans.

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I worked in a trauma center years ago. The state pen was in that city. One night the pen sent over an inmate that went into V-fib, then cardiac arrest. The young ER doc shocked him over and over with no results. An older ER nurse finally said, "Dr, you have given him more volts than the state was going to."

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I have been zapped a couple times by accident because of idiot interns. Every muscle in your body tightens up and it hurts like hell for a few seconds.

 

 

 

And the older machines did not have a sensor to keep it from giving a jolt. I have had heart problems since birth and had open heart surgery in 1961 along with a pacemaker back then. I even made the medical journals as the first child to have an implanted pacemaker. So I do know a bit about the heart and pacemakers.

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To find the answer I would recommend having someone put the paddles to your chest, and click the button. Great demonstration to receive the answer what will happen. :lol:

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My Mama told me that stupid people never learn. Smart people learn from experience.

 

But really smart people learn from OTHERS' experience.

 

I'm trying to learn from others. :P

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Just a funnen and pullen legs, don't try it at home or anywhere unless ya need it :D

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