Top 5 signs someone is about to have a cardiac arrest

The biggest problem with Sudden Cardiac Arrests is that they can often happen without warning. (Which is why they are called SUDDEN Cardiac Arrests.)

While heart attacks, which are different to cardiac arrests*, are often accompanied by quite stronger warning signs such as pain in the chest or shoulder, tightness of the chest, etc which can start hours before the attack, the signs and symptoms of an impending cardiac arrest can often be more subtle. And they may only appear a few minutes before the arrest. Or even not at all.

The early warning signs of a cardiac arrest

Here are the signs to look out for that may accompany a cardiac arrest:

• Chest Pain or discomfort: This can include tightness, pressure or even a feeling of being squeezed in the middle of your chest.

• Shortness of breath: Having trouble breathing or finding yourself gasping for air, even if you laying down and resting

• Dizziness or lightheadedness: A feeling that you might faint, feeling unsteady or a sensation that the room is spinning

• Heart palpitations: A feeling that your heartbeat is racing, pounding or fluttering

• Nausea or unusual fatigue: A feeling of being suddenly exhausted, feeling sick to your stomach or breaking out in a cold sweat.
  

Now some of these symptoms can be very similar to those you will feel before a heart attack but the point is to remember that both a heart attack and a cardiac arrest are very serious, life-threatening events.

It’s just that a cardiac arrest will affect you much more dramatically and is more likely to be fatal than a heart attack.

The key reason for this is with a cardiac arrest, your heart actually stops beating. Whereas in a heart attack, it can keep going.

This is why there is so much attention on getting people assistance very quickly in the case of a cardiac arrest, because the first 10 minutes is critical.

The key differences between a cardiac arrest and a heart attack

A cardiac arrest is like an ‘electrical fault’ with your heart. Like somebody switches it off and it just stops beating, completely.

A heart attack is more like a ‘plumbing problem’. It’s a blockage that is preventing enough blood flow from going through your heart. So your heart keeps beating, but often it pumping way less blood than your body needs. However some blood is still getting through.

With a cardiac arrest, when your heart stops beating, you will often fall unconscious instantly. If you’re standing when this happens, you will just collapse and hit the ground, often leading to other serious injuries, like head trauma.

With a heart attack you’re more likely to feel like sitting down, clutching your chest. You’re still conscious generally with a heart attack, so you can protect yourself to a degree. You might even be able to call for help or call an ambulance.

But with a cardiac arrest, if you’re at home alone, and you drop unconscious, without anyone knowing about it, you are unlikely to survive at all. And you could be dead in less than 10 minutes.

What happens to your body in a cardiac arrest

First off, your heart just stops beating in an instant.  With no blood flowing through your body, vital organs start instantly being starved of the life-giving oxygen they need to function. So they start shutting down and dying within a minute or two.

The other dramatic thing that happens with a cardiac arrest is you stop breathing too. Without any fresh oxygen coming into your body to be transported to your organs by your bloodstream, the problems throughout your body start to multiply as vital functions begin shutting down through lack of oxygen.

Now one thing to recognise is that after a cardiac arrest, a person may start doing something that can look and sound like breathing but it isn’t. It’s called agonal breathing. And it’s just the body’s attempt to draw in some air, which, even if it could get some, would not be any good to it anyway because your blood isn’t circulating. (Agonal breathing sounds like “agonising gasps’ which it is. You can find out more in this blog Blog on agonal breathing )

There is no pulse, no blood circulating in your body, and you are on the road to death, unless someone intervenes quickly.

The first action to help someone suffering a cardiac arrest

Because your heart is not beating, and no blood is being pumped through your body, the first thing you need is CPR.

CPR manually takes over the job of pumping blood through your body. By compressing your chest up and down, CPR mimics the action of your heart and so blood starts circulating again through your body.  Even without you taking in fresh oxygen, this one act alone keeps vital organs alive because there is always some oxygen in your blood, even without someone giving you breaths.

Rescue breaths can help, as this is someone giving you ‘mouth-to-mouth’ and pushing new air into your lungs to add more oxygen to your blood. But even without this, just compressing your chest with CPR will keep you alive until the ambulance arrives.

Why you really need an defibrillator

While you can keep someone alive and most likely prevent serious long-term damage from a cardiac arrest by only using CPR, if you can get your hands on a defibrillator, you must try.

But if you are the only person with the patient, don’t stop doing CPR to try and find a defibrillator. Either send someone to get one or call for help, but keep up the CPR.

The reason you want a defibrillator (or defib as they are often called) is that it’s the only thing that can get the patient’s heart working again, after a cardiac arrest.  Most defibrillators these days are simple to use and even talk you through how to use one. So NEVER feel nervous about using one, even if you’ve never been trained. Just switch it on and listen to the voice prompts. It will literally tell you what to do, every step of the way.

But remember even with a defibrillator you may need to continue CPR until help arrives.

The shocking facts about Cardiac Arrest

Shocktober is the month every year to draw attention to the impact cardiac arrest has on our nation.

Around 70-80 people experience cardiac arrest every day in Australia.

About 80% of these occur outside of hospital, most often at home.

Only about 1 in 10 people will survive a cardiac arrest if it occurs outside of a hospital.

This is because many of them occur when a person is alone. Or with someone who doesn’t know what to do to help them. They may never have learnt CPR or they may not recognise the symptoms or understand what is happening. So they panic when the person collapses and goes unconscious.   Without any immediate assistance, waiting for the ambulance to arrive can be too long because the person is likely to be dead within less than 10 minutes.

Luckily Victoria has one of the highest survival rates for Cardiac Arrest anywhere in the world, mostly due to the high rate of bystanders willing, and able, to deliver CPR. This can be as high as 79%!  So the lesson is simple. Know the warning signs of Cardiac Arrest and then know what to do to help.

If you don’t know, book into a CPR or First Aid training course with us at https://www.resultsfirstaid.com/courses

*See our blog to understand the difference between cardiac arrest and a heart attack - Know the difference between a cardiac arrest and heart attack