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Letter: What a shocker

Published 5 January 2011

From Rodger Mitchell

Your Feedback article proposing a shoe defibrillator was truly a shocker (20 November 2010). It said: “In case of need, you take the shoes off, pop your hands inside, and apply the soles to your chest to administer the required electric shock.” Yikes!

The purpose of a defibrillator is to start a stopped heart. If you are awake, your heart is beating. Never, never, use a defibrillator on a conscious person: it can stop a beating heart. In short, you could kill yourself.

Wilmette, Illinois, US

Issue no. 2794 published 8 January 2011

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