Redneck Cardioversion

I was taking care of a patient the other night who was in for an atrial fibrillation ablation.  In quick and simple terms, they go in, find where the ectopic fib beats are originating and then burn them out.  As we were chatting the typical run-of-the-mill history questions came up.

“Did they ever cardiovert you?  Or have you been managing with drugs?” I asked.

“Nope, whenever I would come in to have it (a cardioversion) done, I’d be in sinus by when they hooked me up to the monitor.”  he replied. “But there was one time though.”

“Go on.”

“I was working around the house doing some remodeling work and noticed myself go into fib.  I had been in it for a couple of hours, but wanted to finish what I was working on.  It was some electical work…” he related.

I saw where this was going…

“And I touched one of this the wires.  Guess I had forgotten to switch the breaker off!  Got a shock, but my fib went away!” he finished.

It’s perfect, a redneck cardoversion!