What Is Cardiac Arrest?
June 26, 2009 by Peggy Rowland
Filed under Women's Health
If you had to choose between cardiac arrest and heart attack, you’d choose heart attack. Some people are wrongly saying Michael Jackson died of a heart attack, but that’s incorrect. Cardiac arrest and heart attack aren’t interchangeable terms.
While immediate medical attention is important for heart attacks, it’s even more critical for cardiac arrest. That’s because cardiac arrest involves the sudden loss of heart function. The heart stops beating and may have uncoordinated contractions.
According to the American Heart Association, “brain death and permanent death start to occur in just 4 to 6 minutes after someone experiences cardiac arrest.” That’s not a lot of time for help to arrive, assuming someone was near to dial 911. Most attempts to resuscitate a person suffering from cardiac arrest aren’t successful after as much as 10 minutes has passed.
Warning signs of cardiac arrest:
• Loss of consciousness
• Absence of pulse and blood pressure
• Failure to breathe
If you suspect someone is suffering from cardiac arrest, you should dial 911 and perform CPR until defibrillation can be administered.
(Image via flickr aussiegall)
