Comments on: How Not to Defibrillate (aka “Medical Review of The New Avengers #58, part 1″)

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:48:17 +0000

And I learn something new. Thanks animus.

By: animus

animus — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:21:38 +0000

Isn’t the purpose of supplying a large electrical charge to the heart to sort of override the existing electrical signals and cause the heart to contract, and then once the charge has dissapated, the normal signalling from the brain takes over.

More or less, except the signal doesn't come from the brain. It's generated in the heart itself, by a series of regions collectively referred to as the pacemaker.

By: Kat

Kat — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:27:04 +0000

@Alberto Rule of cool, my good gentleman.

By: Alberto

Alberto — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:31:47 +0000

Oh, and as a electrical engineer, I am more than tired of these scenes where the effects of huge electric discharges need to be shown graphically as huge bolts.

Electric current is not light and it’s not heat: it is just electrons in motion. Whomever took a shock from a power outlet knows that even when there is no spark, it hurts a lot.

The voltaic arch only means that a lot of energy was wasted breaking the dielectric (air in the case) and the loss was heat and light. If N.O. was touching the patient’s chest, no spark would be seen: the dramatic kickback of the patient’s body would happen way before there was any spark.

By: Alberto

Alberto — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:12:39 +0000

>>From the scene depicted above, it is unfair to criticize Norman Osborne.

The doctor clearly (as I can infer from Doc Scott’s explanation) made a mistake by stating he needed paddles. So it doesn’t matter if N.O. defibrillated in the wrong way: the “right way” defibrillation would make no difference, right?

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:53:14 +0000

Isn’t the purpose of supplying a large electrical charge to the heart to sort of override the existing electrical signals and cause the heart to contract, and then once the charge has dissapated, the normal signalling from the brain takes over. That’s why it’s worthless to shock a flatline, because a flatline means that the signal from the brain is not reaching the heart.

By: Seangreyson

Seangreyson — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:13:16 +0000

To be fair, one of the other reasons the medical staff can’t find a pulse may be due to the unbreakable skin problem again. I would imagine the very slight vibrations from a pulse would probably be harder to feel through skin which bullets bounce off of.

Which would make Osborn’s actions even less significant.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:19:25 +0000

Scott, what you wrote about ventricular tachycardia / fibrillation reminded me of an episode of the Justice League where Flash – contained by the Justice Lords Batman – sped up his heartbeat so much that his pulse rate monitor flatlined. Was that awesome, stupid, or somewhere in between?

By: Bytowner

Bytowner — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:58:54 +0000

Fairly certain that Mr. Osborn chose to ignore the memo’s contents in this instance…