I don't think touching a 9 V battery to your tongue is likely to induce ventricular fibrillation. However, in the mid 1980's, when implantable defibrillators were first introduced and required opening the chest to attach 'patches' directly to the heart in order to deliver the 'shock', we routinely induced VF by applying 9 VDC from a 9 V battery directly to the heart. We induced VF to 'test' the system to be sure that it would be able to resuscitate the patient if and when needed.
Now days, the device is implanted under local anesthesia with transvenous leads very much like implanting a pacemaker. However, we still induce VF to test the system after implantation. The devices now have elaborate algorithms built in to be able to induce VF without the need for a 9 V battery. Joe -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Malcolm Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 5:48 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [time-nuts] Line Volytage frequency Interface Just for the unwary I saw some statistics about causes of death a while ago. Amongst them was the fact that, on average, THREE PEOPLE A YEAR DIE FROM TESTING 9 VOLT BATTERIES ON THEIR TONGUES IN THE UK. I recently joined St John Ambulance as a volunteer and I would much rather not have to use my CPR skills on a fellow Time Nut. Please always think safety first. Malcolm _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
