A cardiac surgery nurse has built an amazing LED heart simulator pendant, inspired by her work and her love of electronics. The pendant simulates the electrical activity of 18 different heart rhythms. The nurse is half of the Toy Makers team, self-described as “two geeky people in Rochester, MN, who spend every ounce of their free time creating educational videos, podcasts, articles, and music. They publish it all on the Internet, free to anyone who might want to learn something or laugh a little.”
The SA, AV, and Bundle Branches are simulated in this heart. The timing is accurate to the actual rhythms as well. Rhythms simulated by the flickering LED lights include:
- Normal Sinus Rhythm
- Sinus Bradycardia
- Sinus Tachycardia
- Atrial Fibrillation
- Atrial Flutter
- Supraventricular Tachycardia
- Ventricular Fibrillation
- Ventricular Tachycardia
- Sinus Rhythm with a 1st degree atrioventricular block
- Sinus Rhythm with a 2nd degree atrioventricular block Type 1
- Sinus Rhythm with a 2nd degree atrioventricular block Type 2
- Third degree atrioventricular block
- Sinus Rhythm with a Bundle Branch Block
- Junctional Rhythm
- Idioventricular Rhythm
- Normal Sinus Rhythm with Pre Atrial Contractionis
- Normal Sinus Rhythm with Pre Ventricular Contractions
- Off (Propeller still on)
The Heart Me is one of several kits and finished products that the due sells on Tindie, a marketplace for hardware creators to fund and sell their creations. There is one review of the pendant from a medical educator, who uses it to “give people a sense of the chaos associated with fib patterns as well as the beautiful synchronization of normal function.”
