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Hearts Too Good to Die: Claude S. Beck’s Contributions to Life‐Saving
Author(s) -
Timmermans Stefan
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6443.00136
Subject(s) - defibrillation , ventricular fibrillation , life support , cardiology , life saving , medicine , medical emergency , psychology , intensive care medicine
This paper explores the role of Western Reserve University cardiac surgeon Claude S. Beck in convincing the world of the merits of electric defibrillation to treat the life‐threatening heart arrhythmia ventricular fibrillation. Before Beck, the method of electric defibrillation had been experimentally explored at least four times but it never caught on as a medical or first‐aid life‐saving technique. Beck succeeded because he synchronized three activities: he refined the technique and provided clinical applications, he built a communication infrastructure, and he formulated a vision of who should use the technique under what kind of circumstances.