i wish i had a heart

[Guest]

How long could you live without a pulse??

in the fighting game mortal kombat one of the characters has a move where he reaches into his opponents chest, pulls out their heart and shows it to them before they die. this, however, is not what i mean. because of massive wounding etc. you would die or pass out pretty quickly.

but lets suppose that we had some kind of electronic gizmo that could send a shock of e.m. radiation or something into the heart, disrupt the elecrical activity and bring it to a dead stop without any wounding.

how long, then, before you keel over??

[Chris4]

It probably doesnt matter as you should be banned for your post about How far can you go.

Im sure we do have a machine to stop the heart. The one which we use to start the heart again cant that stop it? A simple electric shock can stop your heart.

Flatliners. Have you seen that film? Where people stop their heart using the machine which gives you electric shocks (to start the heart). They do this so they can experience the moment before death, where some say you see a bright white light. So even when your heart has stopped you have a few minutes in which you can be given an electric shock to start the heart and you will live.
They work out the time in the film so each person can see what its like to die for a minute or so. Pretty boring film actually, but its often on late night tv and something interesting to watch.

[ScottishKevin]

I've been wanting to see 'Flatliners' for quite some time now, actually. Polmki, are you being serious about you example? Mortal Kombat is a game- therefore games use fantasy. Of course you could not rip someone's heart out of their chest and they would still be alive.

[adam00f]

wouldnt some sone die right on spot if there heart was pulled out...but what about heart trans plants

[mith]

Technically, you're not dead until your brain is dead. I've heard somewhere that ppl have lived up to 8 minutes without their heart beating and then suddenly get revived somehow...

[D_Juggz]

you'd be standing for a couple of seconds, then youd either faint or go into shock. point is you won't live for very long.

[Jelanen]

The only problem with Flatliners is that their target heart rhythym was asystole (flatline). Asystole is not a shockable rhythym as it indicates a total lack of electrical activity in the heart. Since defibrillation works by STOPPING the heart in the hopes that it resets itself into a normal sinus rhythym, asystole isn't productive. Medications can (AFAIK) have some effect on asystole so that you can get someone up to ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia, but if I roll up on someone who has asystole and I got no meds....I'm not holding out much hope for that person (While doing CPR the whole way to the hospital).
Its important to remember cardiac AP 101. The heart works just fine without interaction from the brain. The brain only regulates heart rate, it doesn't set it.

-Jelanen
Oh, did I mention I was an EMT too?