An 82-year-old woman with a history of osteoporosis who has recently undergone thoracic surgery has been producing large amounts of purulent secretions. The physician has ordered CPT. While administering CPT, the patient’s telemetry tracing begins to show a long run of ventricular fibrillation. The patient is stable with no signs of cyanosis or hypoxemia. You immediately stop the procedure and the ECG returns to normal sinus rhythm. How would you explain this?

An 82-year-old woman with a history of osteoporosis who has recently undergone thoracic surgery has been producing large amounts of purulent secretions. The physician has ordered CPT. While administering CPT, the patient’s telemetry tracing begins to show a long run of ventricular fibrillation. The patient is stable with no signs of cyanosis or hypoxemia. You immediately stop the procedure and the ECG returns to normal sinus rhythm. How would you explain this?