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Heart Doctors: No Question Tasers Cause Lethal Heart Attacks
Expert opinion contradicts Taser International training
guidelines
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Two prominent heart doctors have told an ongoing Canadian inquiry
that there is no doubt that Taser stun guns can cause heart problems
and even induce sudden and lethal cardiac arrest.
A cardiologist and a heart surgeon both stated that
based on their own studies of the literature on the weapons, it
is clear that they can induce ventricular fibrillation.
As reported by the Canadian
Press, Dr. Michael Janusz, a heart surgeon and professor
of surgery at the University of British Columbia, told the Vancouver
inquiry "almost all physicians would conclude that Tasers
can induce ventricular fibrillation."
Dr. Charles Kerr, another UBC professor and a heart
surgeon also concluded that a Taser jolt could induce ventricular
fibrillation.
"Whatever the cause of death in patients receiving Taser
discharges, there does appear to be the potential of a cardiac
arrest situation, as has been demonstrated on a number of occasions,"
Kerr said.
Ventricular fibrillation is a condition in which
there is uncoordinated contraction of the cardiac muscle of the
ventricles in the heart, making them tremble rather than contract
properly. If the arrhythmia continues for more than a few seconds,
blood circulation ceases, and death occurs in a matter of minutes.
(Article continues below)
The two doctors also stressed that any form of underlying
heart disease in addition to a general state of agitation undoubtedly
increases the chance of the taser causing sudden death.
Dr. Kerr also said that police should routinely
carry defibrillators if they plan to employ Tasers and should
be trained to initiate resuscitation after using the Taser on
someone who is then unresponsive.
"In summary, Tasers almost certainly can cause
cardiac arrest in humans" Dr. Janusz said.
Despite these conclusions, according to a senior
police officer, Taser International instructs that the exact opposite
is true.
Staff Sgt. Joe Spindor, of the New Westminster Police
Department, told the inquiry that he trains officers using Taser
International guidelines and that he has never been informed of
medical opinions on possible cardiac arrest.
"No. I've actually heard the opposite from Taser in my instruction."
Spindor said.
Earlier this month doctors
condemned as corporate "intimidation" a
court decision ordering a chief medical examiner to remove any
reference to the use of a taser as an antecedent in the deaths
of three men.
Taser International filed and won a civil suit, forcing deletion
all mentions of the weapons in the autopsy reports and requiring
the deaths be termed "accidental".
The ongoing Vancouver inquiry into Taser use by
municipal police, sheriffs and corrections officers comes in reponse
to reports of hundreds of taser related deaths around the world,
but was particularly spurred by the death
of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver's
airport in October after police used a taser on the man several
times before he died on the spot.
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