What Year Was the Defibrillator Invented?
What year was the defibrillator invented? This piece of medical equipment is standard in almost every emergency room or hospital in the world. It is so useful and necessary that most fire department rescue and response teams also have one included in their vehicles. The ability to use one in the case of an emergency can mean the difference between life and death for a patient.
In simple layman's terms, a defibrillator is a medical device to jump-start a heart. In more technical terms, the device makes an electrical circuit through the heart of a patient and a controlled amount of current is passed across the heart muscle. The current applied is used in situations where the heart has developed an irregular beat pattern, or fibrillation, or a fast ineffective beat. The current from the defibrillator helps secure a more organized and slower heat beat, thus restoring the proper functioning of the heart.
What Year Was the Defibrillator Invented?
During his studies at John Hopkins University School of Engineering, William B. Kouwenhoven investigated electrical shock and the effects of electricity on the human heart. His studies allowed him to develop a device for externally jump-starting the heart. This was the birth of the defibrillator.
He made this device in 1930. The first tests were performed on a dog’s heart. What year was the defibrillator invented and used on a human heart though? In 1947, Dr. Carl Beck resuscitated a human patient with internal cardiac massage and defibrillation.
The defibrillator then continued to evolve over the years. The first modern defibrillator that was powered by DC current, as all defibrillators are to this day, was used by Lown and Neuman in 1962. The new device achieved greater stability, reliability and safety.
When Is a Defibrillator Used?
Defibrillators are used for irregular heart beats or ventricular fibrillation. Ventricular fibrillation can be caused by heart surgery, invasive cardiac diagnostic procedures and heart attacks.
An electrical shock administered to the heart by the defibrillator has the ability to restore the normal heart beat and operation of the heart. Without the application of an electrical shock to break the fibrillation, the situation is almost always fatal. The invention of the defibrillator by Dr. Kouwenhoven made it possible to deliver the shock in an effective manner to save lives.
Advances in Technology
The development of portable units for use by fire fighters, police officers, rescue personnel and other first responders in emergency situations has saved countless lives. These portable defibrillators have been simplified to the point that untrained personnel can safely administer a shock to a patient without any type of specialized training. Most of these devices include verbal commands to follow in the operation. They have also been miniaturized to the point they fit in the size of a normal lunch pail.
Implantable Defibrillators
Implantable defibrillators called automatic implantable cardio-converter defibrillator (AICD), have now become available as well. These devices are designed to stop heart arrhythmia. They have been approved by the FDA to deal with ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation.
The device can deliver a small charge to the heart to restore a normal rhythm to the heart. The defibrillator shocks the heart out of fibrillation and cardio-converter shocks the heart out of the abnormally high heart rate to return it to a normal rate.
The battery power pack for the device is larger and is implanted into the abdomen of the patient. The battery packs will last up to three years and can deliver between 150 to 300 shocks. The AICD has the potential to save the lives of the over 700,000 people that have heart arrhythmia each year.
The advances of medicine have been aided by the research of scientists from other fields. New techniques and discoveries have helped the medical field to treat other serious problems in the field of health care. The ability of engineers working with medical doctors has made life saving equipment field portable and able to be used by relatively untrained personnel. What year was the defibrillator invented? It was decades ago and the discovery has expanded and moved into the hands of first responders and doctors that can save countless lives.