Cardiac Arrest
A cardiac arrest means that the heart has stopped beating completely. The most common cause of a cardiac arrest is a life threatening abnormal heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation.
Ventricular fibrillation happens when the heart’s electrical activity becomes so chaotic that the heart stops beating and vibrates rapidly instead.
When this happens, doctors attempt to ‘reset’ the heart using a defibrillator which delivers an electric shock to stop and restart the heart.
Cardiac arrest can also happen due to:
• Severe loss of blood due to injury
• Severe dehydration
• After a drowning incident or smoke inhalation
• Extreme temperatures in the body
• A blood clot in the lung or coronary arteries
• A sudden arrhythmic cardiac event
Cardiac arrest is different to a heart attack as it is a sudden response that is not always due to heart disease.
