An emergency medical procedure that delivers an electrical shock to the heart to restore normal rhythm during life-threatening arrhythmias like ventricular fibrillation. The shock stops chaotic electrical activity, allowing the heart's natural pacemaker to resume control.
From Latin 'de-' (reverse or undo) and 'fibrillation' (from 'fibrilla,' meaning small fiber), referring to the chaotic, fiber-like quivering of heart muscle. The technique was developed in the 1940s based on earlier experiments with electrical stimulation of the heart.
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