How Rapid is your Response Time to Cadiac Arrest?

Having a rapid response time to cardiac arrest is crucial.

Australia’s biggest cause of death and disability is sudden cardiac arrest and each year, an estimated 22,000 to 33,000 Australian lives are claimed each year. 

These occur when your heart stops beating, starving your brain and vital organs of oxygen; you become unconscious and stop breathing or do not breathe normally. 

At this time, every minute counts. Immediate CPR and defibrillation in the first few minutes may reverse a sudden cardiac arrest to save a person’s life and reduce any long-term neurological impairment. With urgent medical care to restart the heart, survival is possible and without chest compressions and use of a defibrillator, a person in experiencing this will not survive.  

Symptoms and Management of A Cardiac Arrest is Different to a Heart Attack.

A person experiencing a heart attack will usually be alert, breathing, and complaining of chest pain or other symptoms. See heart attack warning signs for more information. 

On the other hand, if someone is having a cardiac arrest, they will not be conscious or breathing normally, and in these cases, they need immediate help by calling Triple Zero (000) and starting chest compressions and using a defibrillator (AED).  

These two terms cannot be used interchangeably, however, a heart attack can sometimes deteriorate to cause a cardiac arrest. It is imperative to urgently respond within 10 minutes of chest pain and/or other warning signs of heart attack starting. This may prevent a cardiac arrest in a person experiencing a heart attack.   

So, What Actually is the Cause?  

Sometimes there’s no identifiable cause of a cardiac arrest. 

However, the most immediate cause is usually an abnormality in your heart rhythm, known as an arrhythmia. Ventricular fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia that causes cardiac arrests. This arrhythmia is where rapid, erratic electrical impulses cause your heart chambers or ventricles to quiver uselessly instead of pumping blood.

Deadly arrhythmias do not usually occur on their own. A person with normal, healthy hearts may still suffer a cardiac arrest, this is often due to an outside trigger such as an electrical shock, the use of illegal drugs or trauma to the chest at the wrong time of the heart’s cycle. 

However, a cardiac arrest inducing arrhythmia usually develops in someone with a pre-existing heart condition. These include:

• Coronary artery disease

A cardiac arrest doesn’t discriminate and can happen to any of us, most occur out of hospital and in people’s homes, it can occur anywhere, at any time. Each year in Australia, about 25,000 people have a cardiac arrest out of hospital, but it’s estimated that as few as 5% of these people survive to leave hospital and go home.