What is cardiac arrest?
1 Answer
A cardiac arrest is where the heart briefly stops functioning. It is more severe than an arrhythmia, which is where the heart has an abnormal rhythm, and can lead to death.
Explanation:
The most common cause for the heart to stop beating in cardiac arrest is ventricular fibrillation, VF, where electric signals from the brain (specifically an area called the medulla oblongata) become confused, and rather than beating normally, the heart simply flutters or fibrillates, not doing anything productive with blood.
Heart attack and cardiac arrest are not the same thing. Heart attacks happen when the heart muscle is starved of blood so can't work easily, which may lead to the heart stopping functioning in cardiac arrest.
Other causes of cardiac arrest are shock, massive bleeding, coronary or congenital heart disease, electrocution or hypoxia (lack of oxygen).
