NO SHIT: A Taser shot to the chest can kill you, study warns
50 replies, posted
[quote]
The electrical shock delivered to the chest by a Taser can lead to cardiac arrest and sudden death, according to a new study, although it is unknown how frequently such deaths occur.
The study, which analyzed detailed records from the cases of eight people who went into cardiac arrest after receiving shocks from a Taser X26 fired at a distance, is likely to add to the debate about the safety of the weapons. Seven of the people in the study died; one survived.
Advocacy groups like Amnesty International have argued that Tasers, the most widely used of a class of weapons known as electrical control devices, are potentially lethal and that stricter rules should govern their use.
But proponents maintain that the devices — which are used by more than 16,700 law enforcement agencies in 107 countries, said Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Taser — pose less risk to civilians than firearms and are safer for police officers than physically tackling a suspect. The results of studies of the devices’ safety in humans have been mixed.
Medical experts said on Monday that the new report, published online on Monday in the journal Circulation, makes clear that electrical shocks from Tasers, which shoot barbs into the clothes and skin, can in some cases set off irregular heart rhythms, leading to cardiac arrest.
“This is no longer arguable,” said Dr. Byron Lee, a cardiologist and director of the electrophysiology laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco. “This is a scientific fact. The national debate should now center on whether the risk of sudden death with Tasers is low enough to warrant widespread use by law enforcement.”
The author of the study, Dr. Douglas P. Zipes, a cardiologist and professor emeritus at Indiana University, has served as a witness for plaintiffs in lawsuits against Taser — a fact that Mr. Tuttle said tainted the findings. “Clearly, Dr. Zipes has a strong financial bias based on his career as an expert witness,” Mr. Tuttle said in an e-mail, adding that a 2011 National Institute of Justice report concluded there was no evidence that Tasers posed a significant risk of cardiac arrest “when deployed reasonably.”
However, Dr. Robert J. Myerburg, a professor of medicine in cardiology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said that Dr. Zipes’s role in litigation also gave him extensive access to data from medical records, police records and autopsy reports. The study, he said, had persuaded him that in at least some of the eight cases, the Taser shock was responsible for the cardiac arrests.
“I think when we put together the preponderance of what we know about electrical shocks with his observations, there’s enough to say that the phenomenon occurs,” he said. But he added, “I suspect the incidence of these fatal events is going to be low and can be minimized by the precautions.”
Police officers, he said, should take precautions when using the weapons and avoid multiple shocks, prolonged shocks and shocks to the chest.
“I’d rather see Tasers out there than bullets flying around,” Dr. Myerburg said. “But if you have a choice, if the circumstances allow you to avoid either, then physical restraint should be considered.”[/quote]
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/health/research/taser-shot-to-the-chest-can-kill-a-study-warns.html?_r=1&ref=us[/url]
Fuck, everytime there's a electricity related thread there'll be shitload of shitty puns
-snip- Terrible pun, I'm sorry.
Well this new is certainly
[i]heartstopping[/i]
Those puns are re[I]volt[/I]ing.
On topic though, you'd think it would be common knowledge that Non Lethal doesn't equal "Can't kill"
These kinds of news really take the life out of you.
[QUOTE=Crawfordo;35792797]Well that's shocking.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=zakedodead;35792815]Well this new is certainly
[i]heartstopping[/i][/QUOTE]
You guys are the reason the mods start banning people for puns for a few weeks.
On a related manner, tasing someone doused in pepper spray can also be lethal, what with all the combusting into flames and whatnot.
[img]http://www.facepunch.com/fp/ratings/zing.png[/img]
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("This is not a comment, a joke or in fact a useful post of any sort" - verynicelady))[/highlight]
Edited, apparently puns are back now. I was shocked to hear about them changing it back.
[QUOTE=Madman_Andre;35792899]On a related manner, tasing someone doused in pepper spray can also be lethal, what with all the combusting into flames and whatnot.[/QUOTE]
"What are you doing man, you've already used [I]2 spare batteries[/I] on him for that thing!"
"Don't worry man, it's non-lethal. He will stop screaming after the third battery."
I am no doctor but I'm quite sure taser anywhere can kill you if you are old/have bad heart.
But it's still one of the less lethal weapons available to police. So far there is no alternative.
I thought they changed the designation to "less lethal" a while back?
So what now then? Back to man handling and baton bashing suspects?
[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;35792998]So what now then? Back to man handling and baton bashing suspects?[/QUOTE]
Or you could try not to hit them in the chest?
[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;35792998]So what now then? Back to man handling and baton bashing suspects?[/QUOTE]Man handling? Sounds hot.
[QUOTE=d00msdaydan;35793012]Or you could try not to hit them in the chest?[/QUOTE]
Clearly you don't understand what you're talking about, let me give you a quick run down:
Police officers are trained to aim at the center mass, the torso. It's the largest part of the body, and doesn't move as much as the rest of it does, this minimizes the chance the shot will miss. In addition, a Taser fires 2 prongs, both of these need to connect for it to work, if only one connects then nothing will happen. Reloading a taser takes a few seconds, so unless you have a more advanced model, you only get one shot. Even aimed at the chest these misses happen, so if you were to aim at the legs, the chance it will fail is very high.
Trying to aim elsewhere is not only impractical, but it also goes against training.
[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;35792998]So what now then? Back to man handling and baton bashing suspects?[/QUOTE]
Giant airborne cage drops.
[QUOTE=Lexic;35792950]I thought they changed the designation to "less lethal" a while back?[/QUOTE]
I was under the impression that nothing used in this capacity (tasers, baton rounds, CS gas etc) has ever been designated "non lethal" because there's always that risk.
[QUOTE=Jsm;35793055]I was under the impression that nothing used in this capacity (tasers, baton rounds, CS gas etc) has ever been designated "non lethal" because there's always that risk.[/QUOTE]
I find that kinda stupid because anything can kill you. Less lethal bath foam, less lethal butter...
[QUOTE=AceOfDivine;35793079]I find that kinda stupid because anything can kill you. Less lethal bath foam, less lethal butter...[/QUOTE]
It only makes sense that death would be a possible side effect to fucking around with bodily functions to incapacitate people.
Well, i guess being Captain Obvious is slightly better than being so stupid that you can't understand how something like this works at all.
Wait? Can a rating be considered a pun?
see kids
this is why you aim for the dick
Man congratulations first 4 posters. You managed to make me sort of agree with the mods decision to ban puns.
[editline]2nd May 2012[/editline]
Except minilandstan. I liked yours.
To be honest I'd much prefer getting shocked to getting shot.
Watt?
I thought this was known already?
In other news batons hurt and mace stings.
I'm star plucked at this news...
To anyone that doesn't know how these work:
Tasers (or any similar device, since Taser is technically a brand name) shoot out two very small prongs using compressed gas. They reach between 15 and 35 feet, depending on the cartridge type. Both prongs usually need to penetrate the skin somewhere on the body, and in many cases they get stuck in thick jackets and have either greatly reduced effect or none at all. Depending on the model used, it will send pulses of generally 50,000 volts (at a very low current, which is why it rarely causes electrocution). This tenses up the muscles in the body, especially around the area directly between the two prongs.
It's a difficult choice - rare chance of death using Tasers, or high chance of severe injury using batons and "hard" touching (i.e., punching, kicking, etc.) but Tasers have a far, far less than 1% chance of death - the media seems to talk about Taser deaths so much that people believe that being tased is like the electric chair.
But, most importantly, the incidents of firearm discharge offset by Taser use is lower than deaths caused by Tasers. Most close-range stand-offs have Tasers as well as firearms, and if someone jumps up and runs at an officer in a situation like that, they would be tased. However, in the old days, they would almost always be shot, whether or not they had a weapon (it is easy for the cop to say the suspect was "possibly armed" and posed a threat to his life).
