http://www.sfwa.org/2010/02/how-to-kill-your-imaginary-friends-flatlines/ Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Wed, 22 May 2013 23:41:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://www.sfwa.org/2010/02/how-to-kill-your-imaginary-friends-flatlines/#comment-6047 How to Kill Your Imaginary Friends « Sandra M. Odell Mon, 05 Apr 2010 00:11:19 +0000 http://www.sfwa.org/?p=7568#comment-6047 [...] that is too good not to share. I’m happy to announce a new feature on the SFWA blog, “How to Kill Your Imaginary Friends: A writer’s guide to diseases and injuries, and how to use them…” written by the pseudonymous Dr. Grasshopper. Dr. Grassh… By:Science Fiction and Fantasy [...]

]]> http://www.sfwa.org/2010/02/how-to-kill-your-imaginary-friends-flatlines/#comment-3647 Daniel Dvorkin Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:56:18 +0000 http://www.sfwa.org/?p=7568#comment-3647 I would add that in nine years of emergency medicine, I never, ever actually saw a true flatline. If you get a reading that looks like the heart monitor strip shown above, it doesn’t mean that your patient’s in asystole; it means that you don’t have the leads hooked up right. People who have been dead for hours will still show some residual electrical activity in the heart.

]]> http://www.sfwa.org/2010/02/how-to-kill-your-imaginary-friends-flatlines/#comment-3646 e.lee Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:51:45 +0000 http://www.sfwa.org/?p=7568#comment-3646 thank you for combining medicine and writing advice in the same post! awesome!
This should serve as advice for those medical thriller writers too.

]]> http://www.sfwa.org/2010/02/how-to-kill-your-imaginary-friends-flatlines/#comment-3636 HollyAnn Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:21:58 +0000 http://www.sfwa.org/?p=7568#comment-3636 Six years ago, my husband’s heart stopped during surgery when his blood pressure dropped. He was given drugs and eventually his heart started beating again. The five minutes without oxygen to his brain left him with some brain damage, mostly to short-term and long-term memory; these are lasting effects, though they have mitigated somewhat in the intervening years. At no time did the surgical team use paddles. The reason for this was never explained to me; I didn’t know why till I read your post. Many thanks for your very clear explanation.

]]> http://www.sfwa.org/2010/02/how-to-kill-your-imaginary-friends-flatlines/#comment-3635 Cate Gardner Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:52:18 +0000 http://www.sfwa.org/?p=7568#comment-3635 Thank you Dr. Grasshopper, I Haven’t read it all yet, but I’ll be printing it out for safekeeping.

]]> http://www.sfwa.org/2010/02/how-to-kill-your-imaginary-friends-flatlines/#comment-3625 Ziv Wities Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:33:53 +0000 http://www.sfwa.org/?p=7568#comment-3625 What a great feature concept! Hope to see many more of these – both very interesting and perfectly clear.

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