Like say someone is perfectly healthy but their heart stops and they don’t get to the hospital in time. Why is it impossible to “turn them back on” through electricity? Especially since we figure the brain is just electrical impulses. Why can’t we jolt it back?
In: Biology
A defibrillator (the shock thing) doesn’t restart a heart. It actually does the opposite. It stops it. Your heart regulates it’s own rhythm. If the heart goes into certain abnormal rhythms (like fibrillation, where it’s not beating properly), the defibrillator basically shocks it to make it stop, hoping that it’ll switch itself back on again with a normal (sinus) rhythm. If the heart isn’t doing anything (flatline) then the shock won’t help because it’s already off.
This is the reason why defibs are really dangerous. If someone’s heart isn’t in an abnormal rhythm and they get a shock, it might stop their heart and there’s no guarantee that it’ll start up again.
But to answer your question, shocks don’t start the heart. That’s why chest compressions are so important. They keep blood pumping in the hopes that the heart will start again. Otherwise, the brain will begin to get damaged from a lack of oxygen.
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