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Do Tasers effect heart rhythms?
Healthcare Security Weekly, June 2, 2008
If your security officers carry Taser guns, you may be interested in a case reported by U.S. physicians in which a man’s irregular heart rhythm was probably restored to normal after he was given a shock with the device.
The case, which appears in the June issue of the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine, lends support to the argument that the devices have the potential to alter the function of the heart with possibly deadly results.
The case was reported by three physicians based at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. It involved a 28-year-old man who was admitted as an emergency patent in April after spending 40 minutes in a very cold lake hiding from the police. The patient’s electrocardiogram (ECG) showed atrial fibrillation or irregular heart rhythm.
The patient was anxious to leave the hospital after treatment and got combative with medical staff. One of the physicians alerted security staff and they used a Taser to control the patient, delivering a low-voltage charge. The patient was hooked up afterwards to the ECG and his reading showed a normal heart rhythm.
Although the case does not prove the Taser restored the heart pattern, the cardiologist who treated the patient believes it did.
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