What are cardiac arrest, heart attack and heart failure?

 

What are cardiac arrest, heart attack and heart failure?

 

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, 24, went into cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field during the first quarter of Monday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals, his team said. It’s not clear what caused his cardiac arrest.   Cardiac arrest results from electrical disturbances that cause the heart to suddenly stop beating the way it should.   Death can result quickly if steps aren’t taken right away. “Cardiac arrest may be reversed if CPR is performed and a defibrillator shocks the heart and restores a normal heart rhythm within a few minutes,” the American Heart Association says.   Team doctors were able to get to Hamlin within 10 seconds of his collapse and immediately begin CPR. They were able to restart his heart on the field before he was taken away in an ambulance, the Bills said.   It was crucial to restart the heart and resume the process of normal pumping. It sounds like that happened, which is a good sign, but Hamlin is still in critical condition.   Cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack, although almost any known heart condition, including a heart attack, can cause cardiac arrest.   A heart attack is a circulation problem. When circulation is blocked or cut off in some way and blood is no longer supplied to the heart muscle, this can damage that muscle. Doctors may refer to it as myocardial infarction.   Blockages that lead to heart attacks are mostly caused by a buildup of plaque in the arteries. Plaque forms when cholesterol combines with fat, calcium and other substances in the blood.   Heart attacks can be fatal, but they do not automatically lead to death. Immediate emergency medical help can often prevent a serious outcome. Heart failure happens when the heart – essentially a pump – cannot effectively push blood out through the arteries and circulatory system to the other organs and tissues.   Congestive heart failure, a worsening of this general condition, means blood flow from the heart through the arteries has slowed while blood returning to the heart through the veins has begun to back up, and combined, they cause congestion – a blood traffic jam – in the body’s tissues.   Heart failure is a medical condition that needs to be treated to prevent a life-threatening heart attack but is not as immediately life-threatening as heart attack or cardiac arrest.