Cardiac Arrest
What Is Cardiac Arrest?
Whether you are a male or female, you should have concerns about your chances of having a cardiac arrest. At one point in your life, you will know someone that has died of one.
Through health classes, the media, and various magazines, most people have some understanding what a cardiac arrest is. However, a lot of people do not know exactly what it is. A cardiac arrest is when the heart stops functioning. The heart can shut down for a variety of reasons and once that happens, the individual needs to get immediate medical intention.
Like any other illness or problem with your body, there are a lot of causes. Some of the causes are conditions that have worsened throughout the years while other causes include traumatic reasoning. The most common accidental causes include high levels of voltage, suffocation, a hard blow and shock.
On the other hand, health issues such as heart disease can bring on cardiac arrest and irregular heart beats. One example would be coronary heart disease. Basically, because your artery is blocked by plague, you begin to develop irregular blood flow. Once that happens, you begin to block the essential blood flow needed to keep your heart beating. Once one valve shuts down, you will begin to face cardiac arrest.
The biggest problem with a cardiac arrest is that a lot of the damage cannot be reversed. Because it stops oxygen from reaching the brain, a cardiac arrest causes an individual to have brain damage. After four to six minutes, the brain will begin to shut down. As the brain begins to die, so do the sections that control function skills such as muscle movement, speech, and memory. For every second that passes, the individual’s chances of survival drop dramatically. Also, having cardiac arrest increases your chances of a repeat incident or having a heart attack down the line.
There are a few tell tale signs to look for when trying to figure out if you have a chance of suffering from cardiac arrest. First, you’ll notice an abnormal heartbeat. You may also notice that your heart is consistently beating fast for no reason. Lastly, you might feel faint. If you show any or all of these signs, contact your physician.
There are numerous ways to prevent cardiac arrest. First, if you are working a job that is around water, has high level of electricity and is dangerous, make sure you follow proper work procedures. Accident work prevention should provide you with proper procedures to lower chances of having such an accident. If you have coronary heart disease, you need to take steps to prevent the blood flow block and monitor your blood pressure. Also, you will need to take steps in eating healthier and exercising.
Lastly, your chances of brain damage and death can be lowered if you take the proper precautions. It is important that you, your co-workers and your family all know how to take care of you if you have a cardiac arrest. By having someone close by that is CPR certified, you will be able to temporarily get oxygen to your brain and help keep your system from shutting down. Also, you should consider getting certified. CPR is a multi-step process that allows you to breathe oxygen into a person’s system and push it through the body by manually pumping the heart. Having a certification could save the life of someone else.