Device Can Revive Stopped Heart; Pumped Blood Five Days to Save Life

Two hypodermic needles connected to a wall socket can revive a heart that has stopped, beating, Dr. Paul M. Zoll '32, Associate in Medicine of the Medical School, announced yesterday.

Dr. Zoll saved one patient's life by keeping his heart pumping blood for five days straight. During a period of 52 hours, not a single natural heart beat of the ventricular muscles was observed when the electrical stimulator was turned off. Eight days after the treatment began, the heart was pumping adequately on its own.

The thyraton stimulator, a standard laboratory machine the size of a table radio, provides the missing heart beat. "Hooking up" a patient simply requires a hypodermic needle, connected to the machine, into each side of the chest.

Previously, a "standstill" heart could be stimulated only by injected drugs or direct massage with the hand. The new method is a safe, fast, and simple way to keep a human heart pumping blood, if severe heart disease, shock, or drowning have stopped its natural contractions.

In a very short time, the machine can step up a heartbeat slowed to a dangerous 25 counts per minute to its normal 90. The current running through the resistant thick outer skin causes only a mild twitching of the chest, but no pain or burning.

Dr. Zoll has been working in the Medical Research Department of the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, under grants from the National Heart Institute.