News Flash: Sudden Cardiac Arrest is Not a Heart Attack

[sca2013]

FYI: Since I didn't know the difference until after I experienced Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) - News Flash: Sudden Cardiac Arrest is Not a Heart Attack

The Institute of Medicine Report on cardiac arrest highlights the need to educate the public about the difference between heart attacks and sudden cardiac arrest. * The SCA Foundation summarizes the difference this way: When someone suffers a heart attack, the person is awake and the heart is beating. When someone suffers SCA, the person is not awake and the heart is not beating.* In both cases, bystanders need to call 9-1-1 immediately. In the event of SCA, bystanders should also be ready, willing and able to give CPR and use automated external defibrillators to resuscitate the patient.

[Andyman]

So it doesn't need an education it just needs 911 for both.

[sca2013 in reply to Andyman]

Needs both and anything else that can help.

[Andyman in reply to sca2013]

sorry it was just a little flippant of me. Hope I didn't cause offence.

[GosportNancy in reply to Andyman]

Dialling 911 and waiting for an ambulance to arrive following a cardiac arrest will mean you would have a dead body to deal with as CPR is required on average within 4 minutes for the person to survive. I chat with heart attack and cardiac arrest survivors every day.

During a recent conversation on Facebook we discussed what people did before calling 911 following a heart attack. Some people managed to complete their grocery shopping and stash it away before calling emergency services. Several people drove themselves to hospital and one woman bathed, shaved her legs and put on full make up before calling 911.

Someone having a cardiac arrest loses consciousness immediately and so wouldn't be in a position to call 911

I woke up in ICU from a coma in March this year following multiple organ failure and a cardiac arrest. I am only here to tell the tale because a random member of staff at the hospital was nearby and could perform CPR

[sca2013 in reply to GosportNancy]

Yes, immediate CPR and whatever else they did for me in the Emergency Room, where I was when it happened, is what brought me back.

[skybluepink]

What about MI ?

[Imago in reply to skybluepink]

Myocardial infarction (MI) or acute myocardial infarction (AMI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow stops to a part of the heart causing damage to the heart muscle

[skybluepink]

I was , to begin, conscious, fortunately as records incorrect and since apparently received no damage but pulmonary hypertension and angina have been missed even though had angioplasty to revive .Ignoring classic heart failure symptoms - dysponea -doesn't make sense .This is was happens when system dictates.

[Gilldy]

Hi - i had a cardiac arrest 9 years ago from which fortunately i made a good recovery. I drove myself to hospital and then collapsed on the trolley just as the nurse was about to send me home with stomach ache- apparently all my obs were normal- didn't have any blocked blood vessels - needed 11 minutes of cpr.