• yesman@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    FYI: Defibrillators don’t start the heart, they stop it.

    The heart doesn’t stop in many heart attacks. Instead it just beats erratically and in a way that doesn’t pump blood well. Shocking the heart to stop it (what a defib does) causes the nerve cells to “reboot” and start beating regularly again.

    Shocking a victim who’s heart has stopped is useless and automatic defibrillators won’t go off until they’ve detected the arrhythmia.