Word: countershock
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...heart into fibrillation with low-voltage current. They have left a heart fibrillating for as long as 2¼ hours, and for an average of an hour in 45 cases. At operation's end, they switch the heart back to normal activity with a delicately timed electrical countershock...
...Externally applied electrical countershock has been used successfully to stop ventricular fibrillation, a dangerous heartbeat fluttering that sometimes occurs during surgery. Dr. Paul M. Zoll, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, reported that he and his associates had stopped fibrillation and restored the normal beat in four cases by applying heavy currents (up to 720 volts) to the patient through two copper electrodes held against the chest wall. Heretofore, fibrillation has been stopped only by applying the current directly to the heart, requiring a time-consuming chest incision...
...life from an armchair, declared Playwright Thornton (The Skin of Our Teeth) Wilder, at Harvard for a few lectures. "I want to be exposed to the full shock-and-countershock of life. I don't want to be spared or saved from anyone or anything...
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