Cardiovascular disease is a major concern for doctors. It forms part of persisting diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease and liver disease. Cardiac arrest (Ca) is related with cardiovascular disease. It is the stopping of the heartbeat. What causes the heartbeat to stop can be when a someone dies from illness or injury or just abrupt unexpected stop. This is known medically as Ca and is often related to coronary heart disease. Sudden death is death that comes unexpected due to Ca, blood clot or other blockage in the lung known medically as pulmonary embolus. Sudden death may also be due to bleeding in the brain known as intracranial hemorrhage.
Studies show that the although the direct curative costs are much less than for lingering illnesses, the impact of sudden death in the context of socio-economic setting is huge. On mean citizen 60 years of age suffer from sudden cardiac death (Cd). It also claims most individuals during their most stock years and devastates unprepared families. Doctors note that the most common underlying cause of sudden Ca is a heart charge that results in what is medically known as ventricular fibrillation which is in lay terms the quivering of the heart's lower chambers. Assorted medications and other drugs along with some illegal drug abuse can lead to abnormal heart rhythms that cause Ca and Sd.
There are other known causes of Ca which consist of respiratory arrest, electrocution, drowning, choking and trauma. It is also inherent for Ca to occur without any known cause. A victim of ventricular fibrillation heart charge that leads to sudden Ca suddenly collapses, is unresponsive to gentle shaking, stops normal breathing and after two saving breaths, has no signs of circulation such as normal breathing, coughing or movement. Without medicine death can occur in a matter of minutes. Brain damage can start to occur within four to six minutes after the heart stops pumping blood. Up to 80 percent of all sudden cardiac arrests happen at home and almost 60 percent are witnessed.
Besides bystander intervention which can double a victims chances of survival if administered properly, sudden Ca can be reversed if the victim is treated with an galvanic shock to the heart within minutes. What the galvanic shock does is to stop the abnormal rhythm and allow a normal rhythm to resume. Sadly up to 95 percent of sudden cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital. The survival rate is directly related to the number of time in the middle of the onset and defibrillation which is the galvanic shock to the heart.
