It's been a while since the last time I shared a bizarre medical case.. Just checked, it's been almost two months!
This one is a bit short, and it involves an old man that almost electrocuted himself to death..But by a funny twist of fate he got saved by the exact same thing that was about to kill him!
An 83-year-old man with a cardioverter-defibrillator took a shower and for support grabbed a metal water pipe accidentally connected to a live 240 V feed. With the passage of electricity, he developed severe muscle twitching with tightening of his grip on the pipe.
Sounds like a sure death trap to me.
But you may have noticed something special about this man.
The magic word here is cardioverter-defibrillator. Now, if you don't know what that is, it's essentially a small machine implanted on the heart, typically on people with heart problems. And when needed, this device delivers electric shocks, with the hopes to restore regular heart rhythm and save the patient's life.
Well, at least that's the intended use by the manufacturer 😅
In this case, the device assumed the patient was having a heart attack or whatever and delivered two electric shocks, releasing his death grip and sparing his life from certain death:
The defibrillator discharged twice, resulting in a jolt, thrusting him out of the shower, with disengagement from the electrified pipe.
The device discharged twice after detection of high-frequency vibrations, with their disappearance shortly after the final shock.
Apparently, the patient was just fine despite the... shocking experience ⚡
The patient resumed daily activities after this “shocking” experience, grateful to the device for an “off-label” life-saving shock delivery.
He is probably dead though by old age, since this happened sometime in 2011.
And that concludes today's fun medical case! Here's a link to the actual case although there really isn't much else to read.
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