Ari
Reference your point
<<I don't think that things should be any worse with a manual =
defibrillator, though, since a poor contact is still a contact to the =
skin, and not directly to a stretcher underneath the patient.>>
The issue with poor manual defib paddle contact is that arcs can occur. I
have seen (and heard!) some spectacular arcs because of this effect. They
are dangerous, due to the potential fire hazard (with or without oxygen
being used nearby) and will short to the nearest effective earth source or
opposite pole making the defibrillation attempt ineffective. The best and
loudest one I heard was as a house officer, when a colleague tried to
cardiovert a patient with the plastic caps still on the paddles (it was
1981, his first time, and we had no supervision !). The caps were already
badly cracked, and eventually 400J was enough to make the leap to hyperspace
between them !
Rob
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