First medical aid in case of cardiac arrest. Emergency care for sudden cardiac arrest

Heart failure occurs if the heart muscle stops working. Most often this involves the death of a person. But if there was someone near him who is able to carry out resuscitation measures, it is possible that the victim will be saved. Assistance in stopping the heart should be immediate, because there are just a few minutes before the brain ceases to function as a result of the cessation of circulation, and so-called social death will occur. In this case, there is still an opportunity to restore the lungs and the heart, but the best doctors can not bring the victim to consciousness.

Why can a cardiac arrest occur?

The first medical care will be the same regardless of the reasons for which such a condition has occurred. And yet what should happen to stop the effective activity of the heart? Everybody should know about this. The main cause is ventricular fibrillation. This is a condition in which a chaotic contraction of muscle fibers occurs in the walls of the ventricles, which leads to interruptions in the supply of blood to tissues and organs. Another reason - ventricular asystole - in this case, the electrical activity of the myocardium completely stops.

Ischemic heart disease, left ventricular hypertrophy, arterial hypertension, atherosclerosis are also risk factors that can contribute to cessation of the effective activity of the main human organ. Also, cardiac arrest can happen because of ventricular paroxysmal tachycardia, when there is no pulse on large vessels, or due to electromechanical dissociation, when there is no corresponding ventricular contraction in the presence of electrical activity of the heart (i.e., there is no mechanical activity). There is still such a pathology as Romano-Ward syndrome, which is associated with hereditary ventricular fibrillation, it can also cause why a sudden cardiac arrest occurs.

First aid in some cases is required for those who did not have previous health problems.

External influence

The heart can stop because of:

• Supercooling (when the body temperature drops below 28 degrees);
• Electric trauma (for example, a lightning or current stroke);
• Reception in excessive amounts of adrenoblockers, cardiac glycosides or anesthetics;
• Lack of oxygen (for example, when drowning, suffocation);
• Hemorrhagic and anaphylactic shock.

How to determine the termination of the heart

When the heart muscle stops functioning, the following symptoms are found:

• Loss of consciousness - it comes almost immediately after cardiac arrest, not later than after five seconds. If a person does not react to any stimuli, then he is unconscious.
• Cessation of breathing - in this case there are no movements of the chest.
• There is no pulsation in the place of the carotid artery - it is probed in the area of the thyroid gland, two to three centimeters from it to the side.
• Heart sounds are not listened to.
• The skin becomes bluish or pale.
• Dilation of the pupils - this can be detected by lifting the upper eyelid of the victim and illuminating the eye. If the pupil does not narrow with the direction of the light, then one can suspect that a sudden cardiac arrest has occurred. Emergency care in this case can save a person's life.
• Seizures - can occur at the time of loss of consciousness.

All these symptoms indicate the need for emergency resuscitation.

You can not wait!

If you were near a man whose heart stopped, the main thing that is required of you is to act quickly. There are only a few minutes to save the injured. If the provision of assistance in case of cardiac arrest is delayed, the patient will either die or remain incapacitated for life. Your main task is to restore breathing and heart rate, and also to start the circulatory system, because without it vital organs (especially the brain) can not function.

Emergency care for cardiac arrest is needed if the person is unconscious. First, slow it down, try to hail loudly. If the reaction is not observed, proceed to resuscitation. They include several stages.

First medical aid in case of cardiac arrest. Artificial respiration

Important! Do not forget to immediately call an ambulance. This must be done before resuscitation begins, because then you will not have the opportunity to interrupt.

To open the airway, place the victim on a hard surface with his back. From the mouth, everything that can prevent normal breathing (food, dentures, any foreign bodies) should be extracted. Tilt the patient's head back so that the chin was in an upright position. At the same time, the lower jaw must be pushed forward, so that the tongue does not become lagging - in this case, air can enter the stomach instead of the lungs, and then pre-hospital help in case of cardiac arrest will be ineffective.

After this, directly start making mouth-to-mouth breathing. Clamp the person's nose, draw air into the lungs, grab your lips with the lips of the victim and make two sharp exhalations. Note that you need to fully and very tightly grasp the patient's lips, otherwise the exhaled air can be lost. Do not make too deep exhalations, otherwise you will quickly get tired. If mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is impossible for some reason, use the "mouth to nose" method. In this case, hand should cover the victim's mouth, and blow air into his nostrils.

If the medical aid for cardiac arrest in the form of artificial respiration is correct, then during the inhalation the patient's chest will rise, and at the time of exhalation - go down. In the event that such movements are not observed, check the patency of the airways.

Massage of the heart

Simultaneously with artificial respiration, chest compressions (indirect cardiac massage) should also be performed . One manipulation without the other will not make sense. So, after you have made two breaths in the victim's mouth, place the left hand on the bottom of the sternum in the middle, and place the right hand over the left in the cross-shaped position. In this case, the hands should be straight, not bent. Then start rhythmically pressing on the chest - this will entail the contraction of the heart muscle. It is necessary to make fifteen pressing movements with the speed of one pressure per second without a detachment of hands. With the right manipulations, the chest should fall about five centimeters - in this case it can be said that the heart performs blood pumping, that is, from the left ventricle, blood flows through the aorta into the brain, and from the right into the lungs, where it saturates Oxygen. At the moment when pressure on the sternum stops, the heart again becomes filled with blood.

If the massage is done to a child of preschool age, then the pressure on the chest area should be made with the middle and index fingers of one hand, and if the student - with one palm. With special care should be given to the first medical care for cardiac arrest of elderly people. If you press hard on the sternum, there may be damage to the internal organs or a fracture of the hip.

Continuation of resuscitation

Repeat inhalation of air and pressure on the chest should be until the victim does not get breathing and does not start to feel the pulse. If the first aid for heart failure is at once two people, then the roles should be distributed as follows: one person inhales air into the mouth or nose of the patient, then the second produces five pressure on the sternum. Then the actions are repeated.

If, through resuscitation, breathing has recovered, but the pulse is still not felt, one should continue to massage the heart, but without ventilation. If a pulse appears, but a person does not breathe, it is necessary to stop the massage and continue to do only artificial respiration. In the event that the victim has begun to breathe and his pulse has appeared, the resuscitation should be stopped and the patient's condition must be carefully monitored before the doctor comes. In no case should you try to move a person who has symptoms of cardiac arrest. This can be done only after restoration of the organ and in a special resuscitation machine.

Efficacy of resuscitation

To assess how correctly the first medical aid was given to heart failure, it is possible in the following way:

• The pulse in the areas of the carotid, radial and femoral arteries should be palpated.
• Blood pressure should increase to 80 mm.
• Pupils should begin to narrow, and they must recover reaction to light stimulus.
• The skin should get a normal color in return for pallor and cyanosis.

When to stop resuscitation

If, after half an hour of manipulation, the respiratory function and cardiac activity of the patient did not resume, and the pupils are still enlarged and do not react to light, we can say that first aid in stopping the heart did not lead to the proper results and the person already in the human brain Irreversible processes have already occurred. In this case, further resuscitation is useless. If signs of death have appeared before the expiration of thirty minutes, resuscitation can be stopped earlier.

Consequences of cardiac arrest

According to statistics, out of all people who had cardiac arrest ceased, only 30 percent survived. And to return to normal life and the less affected. The irreparable harm to health was mainly caused by the fact that the first medical aid was not provided in time. When cardiac arrest, urgent resuscitation is very important. It is on how quickly they began to produce, the life of the patient depends. The later cardiac activity is resumed, the greater the likelihood of serious complications. If oxygen does not go to vital organs for a long time, then there is an ischemia, or oxygen starvation. As a result, the kidneys, the brain, the liver are damaged, which subsequently has an extremely unfavorable effect on human life. If you do massage to perform chest compression very vigorously, you can break the patient's ribs or provoke pneumothorax.

Finally

Knowing how the first medical aid is provided in case of cardiac arrest, you can save a person's life and keep him healthy. Do not be indifferent! Agree, it's so nice to realize that thanks to you someone will be able to continue to live and enjoy every day!