Early Defibrillator?

batronic resucitator

I actually got one on ebay, They are a very early diaphramatic pacemaker that stimulated movement of the diaphram by repeated electrical stimulation. There is a very strange glass wand inside a sponge that is wetted for better contact, on the end of an insulated handle with a the wire to the machine. There is a whole host of limb leads and a ground plate to go under the back. Very scary mechanical switching device inside much like the rotating switch for the old mechanical lighting flashers. What I can't figure out is what kind of gas is inside the wand and how the current is transmitted through it.
I aim to get our biomed guy at work to hook it up to a sim-man and see what kind of juice it puts out.
Theres an article from 1971 warning against using them because of effects on the heart--- go figure but they were used to keep animals breathing during research for a while after that....
 
history

A great find! I recently gave a talk on the history of modern acute cardiac care and missed this approach to respiratory support.
Many present day providers have no idea how far we have come in 50 years. This is one of a number of examples of "innovative" approaches to provide advance life support that could be applied with relatively basic training. The present day "AED" is an evolution of such measures.
Thanks for the history lesson.
 
I seen one of those on eBay several years ago. The Batronic Ventilaide. Sounds like one of those crackpot medical devices from the age of 'electricity as a cure' for diseases. eg violet wands, etc. I believe the purpose of this machine was to stimulate breathing. Electro-Ventilation, a giant TENS unit, perhaps? No more useful, probably, than any other machine that was sold by questionable salesmen. Promises of lives saved, in that era, I'd probably have bought one too.

Application of electrical stimulation, in pulses, over the upper quadrants of the abdomen and the diaphragm. This was thought to have caused enough muscle movement to cause a person to breathe. When in reality, you could blow air in all day, unless the blood is also moving, they're still going to end up on a slab.
 
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I actually got one on ebay, They are a very early diaphramatic pacemaker that stimulated movement of the diaphram by repeated electrical stimulation. There is a very strange glass wand inside a sponge that is wetted for better contact, on the end of an insulated handle with a the wire to the machine. There is a whole host of limb leads and a ground plate to go under the back. Very scary mechanical switching device inside much like the rotating switch for the old mechanical lighting flashers. What I can't figure out is what kind of gas is inside the wand and how the current is transmitted through it.
I aim to get our biomed guy at work to hook it up to a sim-man and see what kind of juice it puts out.
Theres an article from 1971 warning against using them because of effects on the heart--- go figure but they were used to keep animals breathing during research for a while after that....
Wow, interesting! Thanks.

Sounds like one of those things in the category of shoe flouroscopes.
 
pacemaker

The batronic might have saved folks by acting like a cardiac pacemaker and stimulating the heart as well..... the shock sure must have woke a few deep sleepers up a bit.....back in 77 when I was doing my first ICU clinicals there was a paralyzed patient with a radical new implanted diaphramatic pacemaker they were using to get him off the trach and mechanical ventilator.... was working pretty well even though there was no intercostal movement. The old Batronic respirators or " vent-aids" must have worked in a similar fashion...
 
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