To stop the chaotic, ineffective heart rhythm (fibrillation) and restore normal heartbeat using electrical shock.
From 'de-' (to stop) and 'fibrillate' (to quiver irregularly), from Latin 'fibra' (fiber). The term was created in the mid-20th century with the development of defibrillators.
A defibrillator delivering an electric shock to a fibrillating heart is one of medicine's most dramatic interventions—it can literally bring someone back from the edge of death in seconds.
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