Ventricular Fibrillation is defined as

Ventricular Fibrillation is defined as

• A. When the heart beats too rapidly but does not pump blood
• B. When the ventricles contract too slowly
• C. When the heart quivers and does not pump blood
• D. When there is organized rhythm with pulse

Answer: (C)

Ventricular fibrillation is a life-threatening rhythm where the electrical activity in the ventricles becomes chaotic, so the ventricles quiver instead of contracting in a coordinated way. Because there’s no organized contraction, the heart doesn’t eject blood and there is no usable pulse. That’s why the description “the heart quivers and does not pump blood” best captures what happens. The other ideas describe different situations: a rhythm that’s merely very fast but not pumping blood isn’t capturing the disorganized, ineffective contraction of VF; a slow ventricular contraction is bradycardia; and an organized rhythm with a pulse implies normal or stable cardiac function. In real life, this requires immediate defibrillation and CPR.

Ventricular fibrillation is a life-threatening rhythm where the electrical activity in the ventricles becomes chaotic, so the ventricles quiver instead of contracting in a coordinated way. Because there’s no organized contraction, the heart doesn’t eject blood and there is no usable pulse. That’s why the description “the heart quivers and does not pump blood” best captures what happens. The other ideas describe different situations: a rhythm that’s merely very fast but not pumping blood isn’t capturing the disorganized, ineffective contraction of VF; a slow ventricular contraction is bradycardia; and an organized rhythm with a pulse implies normal or stable cardiac function. In real life, this requires immediate defibrillation and CPR.