So if a heart stops you can massage, pump or shock it back to life, and surgeons even stop a heart on purpose before firing it back up, so why can’t they do that 100 percent of the time? What is it that makes a heart stop and never come back? If the brain is working then surely the heart should always come back?
In: Biology
Essentially, you can’t reliably “restart” a heart if it’s so diseased that it won’t work on its own any more.
When surgeons restart a heart after surgery, it’s because the heart was healthy enough before the surgery to beat on its own. The surgeons stopped the heart using a drug, and then stop the blood flow to the heart so that the drug stays inside. When they are done, they reestablish the blood flow, so the drug is washed out. Typically the heart will just start again on its own.
If the heart doesn’t start back up on its own, or it starts with an abnormal rhythm, massage and electric shocks can try to reset it, hoping that it will resume its work again.
But that’s basically just giving the heart a little nudge and telling it “Hey, wake up, please keep working!”
But if the heart is so diseased that it won’t work on its own, you can’t force start it. Nothing will help.
As for what could be wrong to make the heart not work anymore? Many things can be wrong. Diseased heart muscles, a diseased sinoaterial node (the thing that gives the rhythm), diseased valves, etc.
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