In the movies, when a patient is rushed to the ER, their heart rate is usually heard rapidly increasing to the point where it flatlines and stops beating all together. This is to demonstrate a ventricular fibrillation, as seen in real time footage in this video at roughly more than 350 beats per minute. Typically at this point of the movie, the doctors are seen using a defibrillator on the patient’s chest, yelling “clear!”, sending a therapeutic dose of electric current to the heart in hopes to correct the conduction and resuscitate the patient.
Synchronized electrical cardioversion therapy is seen successfully correcting this arrhythmia in this video. Medicine is magic!
Written by: Student Doctor @navbadesha
