Polite Dissent

Stormwatch #45
Warren Ellis, writer
Tom Raney, penciler

On a day of R&R visiting family in Alabama, Battalion is captured by some anti-government militia-type terrorists. He is beaten, and then tied to bomb hidden in a van parked in front of the local federal building.

Using his telekinetic powers, Battalion stops the bomb and escapes. He tracks the villains down to a garage on the outskirts of town. In the middle of a sentence, the leader of the militia is struck with sudden severe chest pain; he looks up to see Battalion staring in through the garage door. He explains his plan simply:

The human heart is composed of four chambers: the left and right atria, and the left and right ventricles. The ventricles do almost all of the work of the heart. The right ventricle pumps deoxygenated blood to the lungs to get re-oxygenated, while the left ventricle pumps the oxygenated blood through the body.

If the ventricles are stopped entirely, then the heart will cease beating. As can be easily imagined, this will lead to an uncomfortable death in a matter of minutes.

But what if the ventricles were merely compressed instead of stopped? Then a situation akin to cardiac tamponade will develop. The heart is surrounded by a membranous sac known as the pericardium. In cardiac tamponade, this sac fills with fluid (usually blood), and this presses against the ventricles preventing them from expanding properly. This means the ventricles can neither fill adequately with blood nor pump the blood effectively through the body. Blood flow diminished and the blood pressure drops dangerously low. Other signs and symptoms of tamponade include chest pain, shortness of breath, rapid breathing, anxiety, and distended jugular veins. Tamponade can quickly lead to death (though not as quick as a non-beating heart) and is considered an emergency situation.

Either way, Battalion clearly has things under control.