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[cheetahmarion]

is it safe to have ones heart stopped AND RESTARTED a result of an irregular heartbeat on a45 year old man

E

[Hidden]

This is a common procedure called direct current cardioversion and is very safe with appropriate guidelines in place. Normally performed in catheter laboratory of hospital or in ante room of theatre.

You will find details of the procedure on the AFA website under Cardioversions . I had my first one at age 48  & went on to have a further 14. Nothing to worry about if you need one.

Sandra 

[Beancounter Volunteer]

Define safe?

Nothing is without risk when you are talking about a medical procedure, but a Cardioversion (CV) is pretty safe

And you make is sound much more dramatic than it actually is, technically the heart never actually stops, or rather stops for a very short time indeed.  You are linked by the pads on your chest (or chest and back) to a computerised machine, it delivers a shock in between the irregular heartbeats to being you back into normal sinus rhythm (NSR)

At my first one as I was laying on the stretcher in the ante room of the operating theatre I asked them "remind me what's the risk" and was told "at worst a heart attack", and then they added "can you think of a better place to have one than the ante room of an operating theatre in a specialist heart hospital?"

You might however need to be anticoagulated in case of any rogue blood clots.

Be well

Ian

[seasider18 in reply to Beancounter]

As a young doctor told me in the cath lab, "You are in the safest place in the world"

[cheetahmarion in reply to Beancounter]

Thank you Ian . I am sick with worry over my Son, he is all I have in this world, and I pray for everyone everyday

best wishes

Marion

[Mazza23]

I now have mine done in emergency 

[voyagersprit]

Nothing to worry about for CV as your surrounded by a great team and the risk is a lot lower as you are on blood thinners before and after

[cheetahmarion]

Thank you for your reply, I am sick with worry over my son

[CTG99]

If your son has AF then it may well be more frightening for you than for your son. As heart conditions go, while AF is a pain in the neck, it's not going to kill us and we just hage to learn how to manage our condition in conjunction with the medical teams.

If your son has just started to experience symptoms so is new to AF it's pretty frightening at first. However, as you get to know your version and read as much as you can about it, the fright often goes away. My husband was very worried about me (I'm 44 now) but having attended the AF Association Patients' Days, read the literature and attended appointments with me he's got a much better understanding and feels a lot more comfortable. It would really help if you could do your own research - hopefully that will reduce your concerns.

Hope that helps.

Caroline