How does a defibrillator work?
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LOLA says...
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When the heart has trouble beating regularly, it can go into a state of tachycardia (tachy - fast, cardia - heart) whereby it sort of "flutters" instead of pulsing regularly. This fluttering is termed fibrillation and is extremely life threatening, since blood is not being pushed around the body as normal. The defibrillator applies a sharp electric shock to the heart, by the positioning of two electrodes with conductive gel at specific sites on the skin (or to the heart itself if available). The shock is sort of a slap in the face to the heart - it makes the cardiac muscle fibres contract, pause and, hopefully, regain their rhythm.
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