this post was submitted on 12 May 2024
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We need to turn it off and on again.
Fun fact for anyone reading who doesn't know: if you're ever in the room while someone is being defibrilated, make sure you're not touching them in any way. The electrical shock can stop your heart too!
My department only does this to brains though.
I always wondered what they use for ground when they are zapping people. Does it just go to the bed frame and out the ground wire the bed is plugged into?
There is no „ground“ in that sense. For a current to flow, you have to create a connection between the source anode and kathode (e.g. + and - of a battery).
You can think of the defibrillator as a battery with a very small but powerful charge. You close the circle by touching both pads to the body. The current will flow through one pad into the body, through the heart and „restart“ it and from there into the other pad. No current leaves this system (=goes into „ground“), it goes back into the defibrillator where the loop is closed.
Why do you get a shock from touching a power cable then, you ask? Without touching another pole and thereby closing the circle? (Note: power cables are AC but for simplification, above DC example can be applied)
This is because for our power stations, the ground is acting as a pole, the current can flow through the ground back to it and thereby close the loop. Therefore, you can reduce the risk of a shock by using boots with thick rubber soles - the rubber acts as an insulator.
Btw, „ground“ is an often misunderstood term. Voltage is the difference between the electric potential of two points in a system. What is often called ground, is the common reference potential.
As powerlines use the actual ground as reference potential, „ground“ has become the defacto name for that - but it’s just a point of reference and can be of any potential. I could measure a voltage (=difference) between the ground of two different systems
Called "sympathy asystole"
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We need to turn it off and on again.
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Nah. Defibrillators use direct current. Unless they are covered in salt water, there is no reason for the electricity to go anywhere other than in a relatively straight line
If you have two resistors in parallel the current doesn't just flow through one resistor. You will get shocked. That's why you yell "clear" before juicing them.
No. You yell clear before defibrillation because of hypothetical risk. The likelihood that a person actually received a significant shock is tremendously low, and even lower if they are wearing gloves.
As a side note, you do not yell clear before juicing them. You charge the defibrillator while continuing to give cpr, and then once it is charged, you clear, analyse the rhythm, and if it is shockable, ensure everyone is clear and deliver the shock. This protocol is to minimise the amount of time the arrested patient goes without chest compressions.
TIL
Electricity doesn't immediately know where to go. It is true that it will always take the shortest path to ground, as soon as it finds that route. This is extremely simplified.
Slow-mo video of a lightning strike can demonstrate that
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Don’t upvote bad information, people.