Imagine you are sitting in the front room when your loved one suddenly grabs at their chest and falls in front of you. This image can be scary to imagine, but even scarier if you watch it occur. Naturally, when this happens you will be so full of emotion and fear that you will not be thinking logically; which is why you need to read about what to do if someone is hit by a sudden Cardiac Arrest before it happens so that you will be prepared.
After a cardiac arrest the minutes matter, so there will be no time to Google a response. However, there are actually only a few things that you need to know and they are contained in this guide. Therefore, taking a few minutes to read what to do is well worth your time.
Be Educated and Prepared
The more education you have prior to the situation the more calmly you will be able to react, despite your fear, and the higher the chance that your loved one will have of surviving their heart attack. Cardiac arrest is a killer, but it does not have to be a killer in your family if you are properly prepared.
The Very FIrst Thing You Needed To Do
Canadian Health&Care Mall claims, the very first thing you should do is check for their pulse and look at their chest to see if it is rising and falling. This is to discern if they have a pulse and are breathing after their heart attack. If they are breathing then place them in the recovery position, which is sitting up with their head bent over to their knees, and then race to the phone to call for an emergency squad to come to your home.
The squad can then quickly transport them to the hospital where they can be monitored and properly medicated to prevent the event from occurring again. If they are not breathing then it is very likely that your loved one is in respiratory arrest. If they are not breathing the emergency training right now is also to assume that they are also in sudden cardiac arrest; which is a very serious condition.
What Is Cardiac Arrest?
Cardiac arrest means that they have either progressed or suffered from something a bit more serious than a heart attack because their heart has stopped beating putting their entire organ structure at risk due to a complete stop of blood circulation.
At this point every second counts, so it is advised not to waste time looking for a pulse. Instead, immediately begin to administer CPR, or if you are in a public place and do not know CPR ask for help from someone that has.
A delay of a minute can have a difference between recovery and death at this point, so if someone has known heart disease or heart arrhythmias in your home it may be worth it to take a class with the Red Cross or another organization that offers First Aid courses so that you will be able to administer CPR promptly if needed.
Cardiac Massage
Once again, if a patient is not breathing conventional wisdom is that they are also in cardiac arrest so call for help and then start to provide life saving measures. Cardiac massage has been found to be helpful in this situation when used along with CPR. To perform cardiac massage place the palm of your hand flat against the chest of the victim just over the lower part of the breast bone (sternum) and press against your hand using the other hand in a pumping motion two times.
If the heart does not start beating again start to perform CPR and blow oxygen into the lungs to help keep oxygen in the blood so that the patient does not die. These are often called rescue breaths, and after two rescue breaths you should go back to pumping the newly oxygenated blood around the body by doing thirty compressions (cardiac massage chest pumping action).
Until help arrives Canadian Health&Care Mall recommends that you do two breaths and thirty compressions in a cycle. If you have a home defibrillator or are in a public place that has one this device can also be used instead of the chest pumps to allow a victim of cardiac arrest the best chance of survival.