Often times in TV shows and movies defibrillator is used when someone has a slow or no pulse but isn’t that wrong? Could some explain what the purpose of defibrillator is used for? And do shows and movie even do research before shooting the scene?
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CPR is a technique used to circulate blood in someone whose heart has stopped beating effectively. By applying firm and rhythmic pressure on the chest the person administering CPR is manually pumping the victims heart for them until it restarts. The defibrillator is a newer technology that sends a specific electric current across the heart in hopes of restarting it. Once the heart has begun to pump on its own CPR is stopped. Having the ability to use a defibrillator reduces the risk of brain damage and death. CPR is effective but requires the correct technique and as such a defibrillator provides better precision. For example CPR will not help much if the rhythm or pressure is wrong. Pumping a person’s chest only provides blood to the brain when actively administered so any interruption can lead to brain damage or death.
CPR is done for both someone who is not breathing, or had no pulse. Hence the name cardio (meaning heart) pulmonary (meaning lungs) resuscitation.
If you are referring to someone with no pulse this means their heart has stopped (cardiac arrest) or has slowed to a point not compatible with life.
Hence by doing CPR at this point you are “manually” operating the heart. You are forcing those muscles to keep pumping blood and oxygen through the body. This sometimes can restart the heart, or the heart can restart by itself but you do it mainly to buy time for EMTs with a defibrillator to get there.
The defibrillator is actually what restarts the automatic function of the heart. Think about it like using a jump pack to start a car with a dead battery.
CPR helps pump blood/oxygen to the brain and around the body. The brain dies within 5 minutes of someone having no pulse, so if someone is pulseless, it’s crucial to perform high quality CPR.
Defibrillators are used to correct heart rhythm abnormalities (arrhythmias) such as ventricular fibrillation. It is NOT used on someone without a pulse (asystole/flatline on an ECG) because there is no rhythm to correct. Defibrillators basically reboot the heart rhythm when the heart is spazzing out, which is super important because a spaz heart isn’t properly pumping blood.
CPR is used to keep blood flowing in a person who’s heart has stopped pumping blood by forcing the chest cavity down and squeezing the blood out into the blood vessels; a person who’s receiving CPR needs to go to the ER to get their heart beating regularly again. A defibrillator is used to “reset” a heart that’s beating erratically
Normally, all the cells in the heart contract at the same time, in unison, with each heartbeat.
But sometimes the cells get confused and all the cells just contract independently, randomly. There’s no coordination between the cells. the heart doesn’t really “Beat”, it just sort of twitches. this is called “fibrillation”. it’s very bad, because it doesn’t really pump any blood.
the purpose of the “de-fibrillator” is to shock the cells and get them to all contract at the same time. It resets the rhythm, and gets all the cells to work together the way they are supposed to.
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