Medical News Today -- It’s a familiar scene on most TV medical dramas: a patient is unconscious; CPR didn’t work; someone yells, “All clear!” and the defibrillator paddles are applied to the person’s chest in hopes the electric current shocks the heart back into action. In real life 350,000 Americans die of sudden cardiac arrest every year because they don’t have implantable devices or defibrillators nearby at the time of the cardiac arrest. Northwestern Memorial Hospital heart rhythm specialists recently gave a 34-year-old man a makeshift paramedic who’s always on duty inside of his chest by implanting a device that did not require X-ray assistance and the usual snaking of wires leading to the heart. In fact, the innovative device rests just beneath the surface of the skin and its components are positioned using the patient’s own anatomical landmarks.
