Small signs can make a big difference in surviving cardiac arrest
SUE Chlebek was on her regular three-mile walk with a friend one spring morning when she told her companion she was so short of breath, she must be dominating the conversation.About two hours later, she went into sudden cardiac arrest just seconds after arriving at a hospital emergency room. Doctors shocked her heart back into rhythm with a defibrillator and then deployed a stent to open a blocked artery.About 1,000 Americans a day suffer sudden cardiac arrest, a catastrophic event that seems to come on without warning and almost always results in death unless help is nearby. Ms. Chlebek, a 56-year-old mother of three from Indiana was one of the lucky ones. When these scares happen outside the hospital, just more than 10% of people survive.Now researchers say the events may not always be so sudden. A recent study that analysed 839 sudden cardiac arrests found that in 430 cases, or 51%, patients exhibited warning signs in the four weeks before the arrest. The victims either failed to...
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