What would happen if I used those hospital heart paddles on myself (assuming I was not having a heart attack at the time)? What would it feel like? Would the electrical charge stop my heart?
It sure could, but with a bit of luck your heart might start right back up :eek:
You would have to find a purely Manual Defibrillator. Any Semi-Automatic or Automatic ones cannot be set to discharge unless several very specific rhythms are detected.
The theory is NOT that Defibrillator " restarts" your heart. If you are flatlined, or Asystole, you can not restart a heart. You can try, but the odds are incredibly long. You can only shock a heart that is in a damaged rhythm.
The Defibrillator basically re-sets the heart’s electronics, and gives it a chance to re-set back to normal rhythms. If you shock a healthy heart, you risk damaging the electric system in the heart.
It could kill you. Please do not ever try this, even if you find yourself near a Defibrillator.
Cartooniverse
What would it feel like? The patients I’ve talked to who were shocked while conscious (ventricular tachycardia (VT) with a pulse) said it felt like being kicked in the chest by a horse.
True anecdote: A patient was in the ICU, with a heart monitor on. His rhythm went awry, and he was in VT with a pulse. This leaves you conscious, but can quickly lead to being a pulseless non-breather (a bad thing, mostly). So the treatment of choice is to quickly shock it back into a stable rhythm. However, if there is time, it is best to inform the patient what you’re doing, and slip him some IV sedative.
This didn’t happen here. The supervising resident (I was but a lowly med stud) leapt into action, grabbed the paddles, applied them to the patient’s chest with nary a word of warning, and let fly. The patient converted to a sinus rhythm, and after recovering from the acute effect of the shock, grabbed the resident by the neck, called him a “son of a bitch bastard” and tried to slug him.