# Medically moronic media moments. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 3, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medically-moronic-media-moments/830495 "2019-03-03T19:37:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2019, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medically-moronic-media-moments/830495/101 "2019-03-11T14:01:34Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Pretty much every use of a defibrillator. What is an example of unrealistic use of a defibrillator? What are the appropriate uses of a defibrillator? It seems it is indicated for [cardiac arrest](https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/defibrillators). Despite the name, it seems that it is used for more than just restoring normal heartbeat from fibrillation. ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2019, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medically-moronic-media-moments/830495/102 "2019-03-11T15:42:55Z")
The defibrillating aspect of the defibrillator, i.e. the shock, is used specifically for shockable rhythms. The ones that you would use in a cardiac arrest situation would be ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia. It can be used for hemodynamically significant atrial arrhythmias that are not normally deadly and are not the same as cardiac arrest (atrial fibrillation, supraventricular tachycardias), and they can also act as an external pacemaker for slow rhythms. The problem in TV shows and movies is that they tend to shock for anything, including asystole which is NOT a shockable rhythm, and they just shock over and over without doing CPR. The way the defibrillator works is not by restarting the heart, but essentially stopping it by depolarizing the entire thing to hopefully allow for the normal electrical system to take over. Asystole is when the heart has literally no conduction system anymore, so depolarizing the whole thing won’t help, and pulseless electrical activity means that the electrical system of the heart is trying to function but the heart muscle itself isn’t responding in a functional matter, so shocking wouldn’t do anything there either. Edited to add: Automatic external defibrillators, such as you would find at a public space, are made to recognize shockable rhythms and shock without any interpretation needed by the user. They do not function as external pacemakers, however, so if somebody has a rhythm that is too slow it won’t do anything. As to how they recognize these abnormal rhythms is an entirely different topic. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medically-moronic-media-moments/830495/103 "2019-03-15T03:35:14Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > I’m pretty sure you could have that level of detail in a brand - whether someone could actually hold a red hot medallion (to take a random example) steady and long enough to get a readable impression doesn’t seem like a medical question to my mind, though. Watching the scene in question right now, and the wording on the medallion is not raised… it’s lowered. (And yes, it’s small.) So this means you read the language from the, what? The not-so-burned areas of his hand? I don’t think this is medically sound. (And, really, there’s like 17 letters on each side, yet side two says “… and take back one Kadam to honor the Hebrew God whose Ark this is.” You got all that out of a mere 17 letters, bearded guy? Really? It’s like the inverse of a karate movie where some guy screams in Chinese for 20 seconds, only to have the close captioning say “Let’s fight!”) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medically-moronic-media-moments/830495/104 "2019-03-15T04:30:55Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > In any random place, you’d be more likely to encounter a nurse or an EMT or paramedic than a physician. In 20+ years of responding to medical calls I’ve shown up and there’s been a doctor there twice. That is other than when it’s at a doctors office. And then in a building filled with nurses and at least a couple of doctors all look at me the dumb cop with a “Well do something” look on their face. I know school was a long time ago and you’ve been working in an office for a while but I still think you have more training than I do. > [@Filbert](#): > > Coughing is also pretty good- it can indicate a whole bunch of serious conditions, normally something that will kill you right after some pithy last words. > > Unless the cougher’s a smoker, in which case the cough’s probably just there to take away the cool. A cough is always a death sentence. It’s Chekhov’s cough. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2019, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medically-moronic-media-moments/830495/105 "2019-03-15T04:33:26Z")
I was very disappointed that when both of my daughters were born they didn’t have a machine that goes ping. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medically-moronic-media-moments/830495.md?page=5)