This is why heart attack sufferers need to be rushed into surgery to resolve the obstruction and restore blood flow. Symptoms may start slowly and persist for hours, days, or weeks before the heart attack. The heart continues to beat, but because of the blockage, it is not receiving all the oxygen-rich blood it requires. Not everyone has the same symptoms. During a heart attack, you may feel pain in the middle of the chest that can spread to the back, jaw, or arms.
Or you may feel pain in these places and not in your chest. Sometimes people feel pain in their stomach and mistake the heart attack for indigestion. Other symptoms include faintness, sudden sweating, nausea, shortness of breath, heavy pounding of the heart, abnormal heart rhythms, loss of consciousness, restlessness, anxiety, and bluish lips, hands, or feet.
If you believe someone is experiencing the symptoms of a heart attack, call immediately. Learn more about the symptoms of heart attack AKA myocardial infarction. While a heart attack is a circulation problem, cardiac arrest is an electrical problem triggered by a disruption of the heart's rhythm.
Most heart attacks do not lead to cardiac arrest. However, when cardiac arrest happens, a heart attack is a common cause. In many cases, cardiac arrest is a temporary condition experienced during a medical emergency.
It is not necessarily preceded by heart disease, but many patients experience warning symptoms up to a month before cardiac arrest. Because cardiac arrest stops the heart from beating, the brain, lungs, and other organs do not get the blood and oxygen they need.
Cardiac arrest can lead to death within minutes if not treated. Symptoms of cardiac arrest include dizziness, loss of consciousness, and shortness of breath. Within seconds of cardiac arrest, a person will become unresponsive and have trouble breathing. CPR is intended to pump the heart to get blood flowing and circulating to organs. Begin CPR immediately and continue until professional emergency medical services arrive. Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death — over , out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur annually in the United States.
Written by American Heart Association editorial staff and reviewed by science and medicine advisers. See our editorial policies and staff. Heart Attack. About Heart Attacks. Warning Signs of a Heart Attack. Angina Chest Pain. Diagnosing a Heart Attack. Treatment of a Heart Attack. Life After a Heart Attack. Heart Attack Tools and Resources. Our monthly e-newsletter delivers helpful articles and the latest news for heart patients and their families. By clicking the sign up button you agree to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
What is a heart attack? What is cardiac arrest? What is the link? Take Action. Save a Life. Donate now. Rapid, erratic electrical impulses cause your ventricles to quiver uselessly instead of pumping blood ventricle fibrillation.
Sudden cardiac arrest can happen in people who have no known heart disease. However, a life-threatening arrhythmia usually develops in a person with a preexisting, possibly undiagnosed heart condition. Conditions include:. A typical heart has two upper and two lower chambers. The upper chambers — the right and left atria — receive incoming blood. The lower chambers — the right and left ventricles — pump blood out of your heart.
The heart valves, which keep blood flowing in the right direction, are gates at the chamber openings for the tricuspid and mitral valves and exits for the pulmonary and aortic valves. Because sudden cardiac arrest is so often linked with coronary artery disease, the same factors that put you at risk of coronary artery disease can also put you at risk of sudden cardiac arrest.
These include:. When sudden cardiac arrest occurs, reduced blood flow to your brain causes unconsciousness. If your heart rhythm doesn't rapidly return to normal, brain damage occurs and death results.
Survivors of cardiac arrest might show signs of brain damage. Reduce your risk of sudden cardiac arrest by getting regular checkups, being screened for heart disease and living a heart-healthy lifestyle. Sudden cardiac arrest care at Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic does not endorse companies or products. Advertising revenue supports our not-for-profit mission. This content does not have an English version.
This content does not have an Arabic version. Overview Sudden cardiac arrest is the abrupt loss of heart function, breathing and consciousness. Request an Appointment at Mayo Clinic. Chambers and valves of the heart Open pop-up dialog box Close. Chambers and valves of the heart A typical heart has two upper and two lower chambers.
Share on: Facebook Twitter. Show references Jameson JL, et al. Cardiovascular collapse, cardiac arrest, and sudden cardiac death.
In: Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. Accessed Nov. Sudden cardiac arrest.
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