Movies Lied. A Defibrillator Doesn't Restart Your Heart 😳

In the movies, the hero gets shocked off a flatline and wakes up. Real defibrillators don't work like that.

In most sudden cardiac arrests, the heart isn't still. It's in ventricular fibrillation: the muscle quivers out of sync, so it pumps almost nothing. The shock hits a large amount of heart muscle at once and stops that chaos. For a split second everything goes quiet, and then the heart's own natural pacemaker (the sinoatrial node) can take over again with a normal rhythm.

A flatline (asystole) is different. A defibrillator can't restart it. That needs CPR and medication.

Illustration only, not medical advice. If someone collapses, call emergency services and start CPR.

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