I know medical shows aren’t accurate but I’ve been watching House MD and something commonly repeated is that heart failure is always dangerous because the lack of oxygen to the brain can cause irreparable damage in a matter of minutes.
Modern medicine is so advanced, why isn’t there a way to get oxygen to the brain if the heart stops pumping? Or is it not feasible to fix the heart problem and get it pumping again if the defibrillator doesn’t work?
In: Biology
You can, with an ECMO.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/ecmo/about/pac-20484615
Why don’t we? There’s more going on than the heart not working right, and you can’t sit on the machine forever. If your heart is done, there’s likely a reason and that reason will kill you. We can keep people alive during a bypass or a heart transplant, but those don’t last forever.
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