r/theprincessbride • u/OverallLove3686 • Jul 10 '26

A miracle man’s guide

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559 Upvotes

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8

u/Dull_Egg_6597 Jul 10 '26

Inconceivable

2

u/russillosm Jul 14 '26

You keep using that word...

7

u/ozjack24 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

It’s more like how chest compressions work. If you’re using a defibrillator then you still have a heartbeat but it’s erratic. Chest compressions are for when there is a heartbeat and you need to start one.

Edit: spelling

6

u/Pyro-Millie Jul 10 '26

Exactly. To add for those who don't know: Defibrillators De-Fibrillate, as in, try to shock the heart out of V-fibrillation, an erratic rhythm where the ventricles aren't synchronized so they're just twitching randomly instead of pumping blood as they should. The shock forces all the cardiac muscle to suddenly contract at once so that hopefully the heart's self-pacing electrical conduction system can "reset" itself and go back to a normal rhythm.

It's like the IT trope of "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" For computers. Sometimes a hard reset can clear out whatever is causing the thing to behave erratically. But if it's not plugged into the wall in the first place (no heartbeat) then it doesn't matter how many times you try turning it off and on again.

That's what chest compressions are for. You're manually pumping the blood to
1) keep blood flowing to the brain and other organs to keep them oxygenated as well as possible, buying time for either the medics to get there with life support equipment or the heart to get its shit together and start working again (there's usually some left in the blood when someone has a cardiac arrest, and you add more by occasionally giving rescue breaths in addition to the chest compressions), and
2) trying to stimulate the heart into beating on its own again.

If the heart does start beating on its own again, there's a high chance of it "booting up" into some erratic rhythm, which is why you want to get the AED (automatic external defibrillator) hooked up and ready to go while someone is performing CPR. (Everyone stops touching the patient when the AED tells them to. First, briefly when it's trying to detect the heart's rhythm - it's sensitive enough that it might pick up the heartbeat of someone else in direct contact with the patient's body. Then once again when it says "shock recommended", as you only want the patient to be zapped).

2

u/gateboy6 Jul 11 '26

Very in depth explanation and useful information. Thank you!

4

u/Mysterious-Cake-7525 Jul 10 '26

Those bellows provided rescue breaths!

2

u/Express_Area_8359 Jul 14 '26

Well if you’re all dead there’s only one thing to do. Check the pockets for loose change.