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Children may be more susceptible to cardiac ventricular fibrillation, a rare heart malfunction that can be caused by TASER stun guns, one UW-Madison professor recently told the Canadian Postmedia news service following a high-profile stabbing.

TASER

Last week, the stabbing in the British Columbia town of Prince George made headlines because the suspected assailant was an 11-year-old boy. Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who are accusing the boy of stabbing a 37-year-old man, later subdued him with a TASER.

The boy was hospitalized, but media reports have not yet revealed whether the boy suffered from the heart malfunction.

TASER International, maker of the popular stun gun, claims the devices don’t cause the heart malfunction, supposedly caused by electrical voltage interfering with heart rhythms. John Webster, a professor of biomedical engineering at UW-Madison, told the news service it was possible but “a very small risk.”

Webster’s research interests, include, according to his faculty profile, “the safety of less-lethal electromuscular incapacitation devices,” also known as TASERS and stun guns.

He told the media, “I think TASERS are a good thing; it’s just that there are … rare cases that are unfortunate.”

Webster says the risk of a heart malfunction “might be larger in a child than in an adult because the dart, which would have to land in the region over the heart, could penetrate between the ribs and get closer to the heart than in most adults.” In adults, there would be greater barriers – more bone and flesh – between the electrified dart and the heart.

Webster, however, refrained from criticizing the Canadian officers, explaining that if a child “chose to attack a policeman with a knife, the policeman would be certainly justified in using a TASER.”

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