Figure 1. Early Commercialized Defibrillator (Source)
Brief: Another tool commonly associated with the medical care field is the defibrillator. But to understand the device itself we must first take a look at the underlying principle of defibrillation. Defibrillation is a therapeutic dose of electric current to the heart to depolarize a critical mass in the heart muscle, allowing the body to return to a natural pace. In the previous post referring to the galvanometer, Galvani discovered that electrical currents can cause muscle contraction in 1791. However, the application of electricity in the field of medicine was primarily to confirm whether or not a person was truly dead. Eventually in 1850, Karl Ludwig applied the current to a dog's heart and made it quiver. There are currently 2 types of defibrillation devices: Automated External Defibrillators (AED) and Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICD).
