Clarifying cardiac arrest: What is it?

Online searches skyrocketed on Jan. 3 for “cardiac arrest.” Earlier that morning, the Buffalo Bills announced that safety Damar Hamlin “collapsed from cardiac arrest” during the Monday Night Football game the night before.

Hamlin was unresponsive and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. The game was postponed, and Hamlin’s life hung in the balance. Hamlin eventually survived, and he is recovering.

Nearly 24 million people had watched the on-field drama unfold. And news headlines in the days that followed echoed the nation’s hope for Hamlin’s recovery — along with an overwhelming curiosity surrounding the question: What is cardiac arrest?

And it’s a question Dr. David Stultz, cardiologist with Kettering Health, wants to help answer.

What cardiac arrest isn’t

Heart attacks are best understood as “damage to the heart muscle,” Dr. Stultz explained. Like any muscle, the heart needs oxygenated blood to stay healthy. And when an artery leading to the heart gets blocked, it starves the heart of oxygen.

“Think of a heart attack as a plumbing issue,” Dr. Stultz said. “The pipes, essentially, get clogged.” And that clog, or blockage, essentially suffocates the heart as it tries to pump blood.

During a heart attack, the body will still have a pulse. That’s because the “plumbing issue” doesn’t interfere with the heart’s electrical hardwiring, which keeps it beating. But on occasion, damaged heart tissue can cause it “to go haywire.” This leads to what he called ventricular fibrillation — or cardiac arrest.

What cardiac arrest is

“Where heart attacks can be considered plumbing issues,” Dr. Stultz said, “cardiac arrest is an electrical issue.”

And that electrical issue stops the body’s cardiac conduction system, keeping it from pumping rhythmically with enough force to push blood throughout the body. When the heart stops pumping blood, the body shuts down.

“While patients may feel dizzy, there’s not much warning,” Dr. Stultz explained. “Chances are they’ll faint. And they won’t have a pulse.”

Within minutes of lost circulation, organ damage begins. More than other organs in your body, Dr. Stultz said, the brain is most vulnerable to life-threatening damage. The loss of brain cells compounds into loss of basic bodily functions, along with higher functions like speech and motor skills.

This immediate cascade of complications is why out-of-hospital survival rates for cardiac arrest are fairly low — and why bystander CPR, along with AED (automated external defibrillator) access is so vital to someone’s survival.

Always act

Despite their differences, cardiac arrest and heart attacks both deserve the same response: action.

“The most important thing to do,” Dr. Stultz warned, “is to know what symptoms to recognize and to call 911. If they faint and don’t have a pulse, it’s cardiac arrest. If they have a pulse and they’re breathing, it can be a heart attack. But act either way.”

Take the quiz

Learn more about your risk for heart disease. Take Kettering Health’s heart quiz online at https://ketteringhealth.org/services/heartvascular-care/heartquiz/.