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A member asked:
Why defibrillation is done till a patient is on flatline?
A doctor has provided 1 answer
Defibrillation: Actually, we don't defibrillate when a patient is flat-lined. That is a tv thing. We can only use the defribrillator, when someone is in ventricular fibrillation (vf), thus the term, defibrillation. Vf is an abnormal rhythm, and is not resulting in a pulse, so there is no blood pressure. When a person has asystole, or a flatline, we use chemicals like Atropine to try and get the heart to start.
Answered 6/24/2014
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