Why is Ventricular Fibrillation Fatal?
If not electrically defibrillated (shocked) within a 2-3 minutes, a patient who develops ventricular fibrillation will rapidly deteriorate to cardiac arrest and die. This type of heart rhythm problem involves the left ventricle, which is the main pumping chamber of the heart. When the left ventricle fibrillates (quivers, instead of beating normally), blood in the heart chambers, and all over the body, does not circulate and stagnates because the “pump” is quivering and not pumping effectively. As a result, the brain and all other vital organs are deprived of fresh blood that carries oxygen and nutrition, etc. Brain cells and all body cells suffer from “suffocation” and die. From the time the heart stops, how much time is there to save the person? As a rule, we say no more than 3 minutes by the clock. The brain is most sensitive to hypoxia (lack of oxygen). If ventricular fibrillation or cardiac arrest is left untreated beyond 3 minutes, the brain deteriorates, is irreversibly damaged a
Related Questions
- You mentioned above that a patient with intractable ventricular fibrillation was salvaged by mechanical TMR punctures and survived for fourteen years. What was his coronary condition?
- What is the difference between ventricular fibrillation and atrial fibrillation?
- What are ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF)?
