Daredevil #25: A Medical Review

Daredevil #25 Mark Waid, writer Chris Samness, artist Larry, an informant, tells Matt Murdock/Daredevil that a not-yet-revealed adversary has been experimenting on the homeless by exposing them to toxic chemicals, hoping to duplicate Daredevil’s origin and powers. Larry explains that he managed to escape and offers to lead Daredevil back to the lab. Because the informant’s heart rate remains completely steady, Daredevil decides he must be telling the truth1. Once they arrive at the purported location of the lab, Daredevil reveals that he knows it’s a setup because he’s detected that something is not quite kosher with Larry’s heart: “They didn’t want me to know you were lying, Larry! Dear God – that’s why they gave you a pacemaker.” Daredevil tells Larry to run to the nearest ER because the pacemaker is probably sabotaged. Sure enough, at that very moment, Larry collapses, dead. Let’s have a quick talk about pacemakers, and what they can and cannot do. Basically, pacemakers are used to speed up a heart that is beating too slowly (and, in certain circumstances, to get a heart to beat that isn’t beating at all). As the name suggests, pacemakers work by supplying the heart with just enough electrical current to create a heart beat. In other words, they can only speed up how fast the heart beats, they cannot slow it down. Thus, a pacemaker by itself could not cause the informant’s heart beat to remain steady while lying to Daredevil. (An issue I s...
Source: Polite Dissent - Category: Family Physicians Authors: Tags: newtag Source Type: blogs