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An AED can ensure ‘current’ in your heart if it is ‘under attack’
A sudden cardiac arrest causes loss of all heart activity due to an irregular heart rhythm and the person becomes unconscious and needs ‘electrical shock.’ Without immediate treatment, sudden cardiac arrest can lead to death.
LUCKNOW: The news of a sudden death on the dance floor, in classroom or at the gym gives a shock to many. However, doctors put this kind of cardiac arrest under ‘electrical failure’ category.
“It’s a tricky situation that does not give time. Ventricular fibrillation, also called electrical short circuiting, happens with a lightning speed, just as it happens with an electrical bulb which worked for over 10 years and one day suddenly goes off when you switch it on,” said Dr Bhuwan Chandra Tiwari, HoD, cardiology, at the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences.
A heart attack can give time or warning signs, may be from 10 minutes to 10 days or even a month, showing your heart is getting weak and needs a doctor. When electrical activity goes wrong, the heart beat just stops. This happened in case of a major heart attack too, he said.
“Arrhythmia is a major cause for death due to heart failure,” said Dr Mahim Saran of the Medanta Hospital.
Citing statistics between cardiac arrest or sudden death and heart attack in children and adults he said, “In case of death among children, 95% cases of death can be linked to electrical instability owing to stress, or extreme physical exertion during sports or other activity. In case of an adult, this percentage of electrical instability primarily leading to death is below 5%.”
Doctors ruled out any connection between cardiac arrests and vaccines, saying nothing had been proven so far.
How to manage this situation
A sudden cardiac arrest causes loss of all heart activity due to an irregular heart rhythm and the person becomes unconscious and needs ‘electrical shock.’ Without immediate treatment, sudden cardiac arrest can lead to death.
Dr Bhuwan Chandra Tiwari said, “In such a case automated external defibrillator or AED can help save life. But this is possible only if the AED equipment is within reach as over four-minutes of inactive heart can cause damage to brain, even if the heart is revived.”
AED analyses heart rhythm and gives safe electrical shock to revive the organ. “If the AED is used after four minutes, the brain’s blood supply is badly affected and the outcome of reviving the heart can be poor as the person might slip into coma. The heart can be revived even after 10 minutes but damage to brain will then be a big issue,” he said.
Some countries have made AED booths roadside, just as there were PCOs in India. Doctors said more AED at strategic places would give major respite. “We already have Health ATMs. If the community health officers are trained to use AED and the equipment is placed at Health ATMs, we can save lives for sure. Use of AED is simple to learn and use,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, Association of International Doctors.
“Learning to operate an AED is simple and one can understand the process in two sessions only. To operate AED one does not need any medical qualification,” said Prof Ambrish Kumar, HoD, vascular surgery in King George’s Medical University.
AED can be kept in schools, offices, hotels, malls and commercial and office complexes, said doctors. “Knowledge of cardio pulmonary resuscitation or CPR should be taught at school level, may be from class 10 onwards. This will help create a force of people who will be trained to save a life anywhere, including airplane, train, bus, market and even in their own home and locality. CPR saves life even before medical help arrives,” said Dr Sandeep Kapoor, director, Healthcity hospital.
“Children over the age of 10 years understand much about basics of health and life. They should be taught healthy lifestyle and asked to report to parents or school authority any health issue they suddenly encounter . Children often hide or ignore illness so the schools should conduct weekly session on personal health,” said Dr Samir Mishra, senior faculty, King George’s Medical University.
How to operate an AED
Prof Ambrish Kumar of the department of vascular surgery in King George’s Medical University said, “There are two pads connected to AED and they need to be placed on the heart,one from the front and the other another side. The machine does heart beat reading on itself and gives a shock. One but must learn about it before using it.”
