What is the defibrillator and how does it work?

Answer 1

Fibrillation is the medical term for what your heart does when it is not beating correctly. Defibrillator is the devise used to send a electric shock to your heart to stimultate it back into its regular beating mode, ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Normally the heart cells fire in a orderly way controlled by natural pacemaker sites that are part of the heart. When the heart is fibrillating, cells are not firing in an organized way, the pacemaker sites have lost control. Often there is no damage YET and a heart attack, ( by definition causes an area of damage to the heart), has not happened yet.

If just the top of the heart is fibrillating the defibrillation ( in this case often called a cardioversion) can sometimes be delayed without damage and the patient will remain conscious. If the bottom part or the whole heart is fibrillating they will not have a pulse, will often have a convulsion and will stop breathing. Defibrillation in this case must be done immediatly. If done within one minute there is up to a 90% chance of survival dropping 10% for each minute the defibrillation is delayed. There is no way that any EMS system can get there fast enough, that is why we need AEDs in areas of public assembly or high risk areas like Health Clubs and schools.

Defibrillation resets the heart with an electrical discharge that fires all the muscle cells in the body ( that is why the body jerks when you push the button to fire the defibrillator. This resets the heart, like when you reset your computer. For a moment it actually stops all activity in the heart. If you were looking at a heart monitor you would see the activity go to flat line ( asystole) then, once ANY one of the three pacemaker sites cature the rhythm the heart can beat normally.

If the fibrillation has caused sudden cardiac arrest the defibrilation must be done within 3-5 minutes from the time the heart fibrillates or the chances for survival drop below 50%. The average response time at BEST in the US is 4-10 minutes. The chance of survival drops 7-10% per minute.

In the best paramedic systems in the US survival of out of hospital cardiac arrest is 2%-15%. In locations that have Automated External Defibrillators that have literally been used by 6th graders with minimal training and can NOT cause harm the survival rate improves to 70% or better.
A difibrillator is the device that doctors, or regular people, use to start one's heart up again. It is the machine that shocks the heart so it beats again.
what does a defibrillator look like
A piece of equipment used in resussitation when someone is in cardiac arrest or other cardiac related life threatening problems. It delivers a theraputic amount of electrical energy to the affected area of the heart to allow normal sinus rhythm.

Answer 2

Yes, a defibrillator uses electric shock to help the heart beat properly. Patients with arrhythmia may have a defibrillator implanted in their chest. The first was implanted in 1980, and well over 100,000 are now in use.

Answer 3

A defibrillator is a machine that doctors use to revive people's hearts.

Answer 4

shock