"Cardiac arrest"

(Mike) said:

Cardiac arrest Life: More health clubs, schools and airports than ever before are being equipped
with AEDs to prevent sudden cardiac arrests — disruptions in the heart's normal rhythm
— from proving deadly. at washtimes.com20040209 101727 3896r.htmOpen ↗

Yes, public access AEDs are becoming much more common and that's a good thing, but AEDs do not
*prevent* cardiac arrest. They're only useful once cardiac arrest has already occurred.

Carey Gregory said:

(Mike) said:

Cardiac arrest Life: More health clubs, schools and airports than ever before are being equipped
with AEDs to prevent sudden cardiac arrests — disruptions in the heart's normal rhythm
— from proving deadly. at washtimes.com20040209 101727 3896r.htmOpen ↗

Yes, public access AEDs are becoming much more common and that's a good thing, but AEDs do not
*prevent* cardiac arrest. They're only useful once cardiac arrest has already occurred.

The article actually says that AEDs "prevent sudden cardiac arrests... from proving deadly."

Anyway, more technically, they are good for ventricullar fibrillation, not cardiac arrest.

PF

(PF Riley) said:

The article actually says that AEDs "prevent sudden cardiac arrests... from proving deadly."

Ah, okay, the slightly munged HTML copy/paste job led me to misread it.

Quoted message said:

Anyway, more technically, they are good for ventricullar fibrillation, not cardiac arrest.

Well, heck, as long as we're being technical, v-fib *is* cardiac arrest, along with pulseless
ventricular tachycardia, asystole, and EMD. (by clinical definition)

Oh, and you left out pulseless v-tach. AEDs are good for that too. Technically, of course. ;-)

Carey Gregory said:

Well, heck, as long as we're being technical, v-fib *is* cardiac arrest, along with pulseless
ventricular tachycardia, asystole, and EMD. (by clinical definition)

Oh, and you left out pulseless v-tach. AEDs are good for that too. Technically, of course. ;-)

Well, *technically*, while asystole is indeed cardiac arrest, an AED won't shock it. ;-)

AEDs are great, but people still need to learn CPR.

anon said:

Well, *technically*, while asystole is indeed cardiac arrest, an AED won't shock it. ;-)

No, but twitchy ER residents will.

"Hey, it worked on 'ER!'"

Carey Gregory said:

anon said:

Well, *technically*, while asystole is indeed cardiac arrest, an AED won't shock it. ;-)

No, but twitchy ER residents will. "Hey, it worked on 'ER!'"

And in "Flatliners." ;-)

anon said:

Carey Gregory said:

anon said:

Well, *technically*, while asystole is indeed cardiac arrest, an AED won't shock it. ;-)

No, but twitchy ER residents will. "Hey, it worked on 'ER!'"

And in "Flatliners." ;-)

What's spookier to me than asystole is pulseless electrical activity. I once checked a 4-year-old
drowning victim minutes after she had been declared dead as she had nearly normal PQRST complexes on
her rhythm monitor. I could hear her valves opening and closing softly in her chest. But given the
time she had been down and the fact that she had no pulses, no blood pressure, no spontaneous
respirations, and no pupillary reflexes -- one could still only conclude that she really was dead.
It was just hard to walk away from her when you could hear a heart beating, though.

PF

maybe it's fine v-fib!!! 😉

"Carey Gregory" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

anon said:

Well, *technically*, while asystole is indeed cardiac arrest, an AED won't shock it. ;-)

No, but twitchy ER residents will.

"Hey, it worked on 'ER!'"

i'm guessing she wasn't hypothermic...

Quoted message said:

What's spookier to me than asystole is pulseless electrical activity. I once checked a 4-year-old
drowning victim minutes after she had been declared dead as she had nearly normal PQRST complexes
on her rhythm monitor. I could hear her valves opening and closing softly in her chest. But given
the time she had been down and the fact that she had no pulses, no blood pressure, no spontaneous
respirations, and no pupillary reflexes -- one could still only conclude that she really was dead.
It was just hard to walk away from her when you could hear a heart beating, though.

PF

Carey Gregory <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

anon said:

Well, *technically*, while asystole is indeed cardiac arrest, an AED won't shock it. ;-)

No, but twitchy ER residents will.

"Hey, it worked on 'ER!'"

Better would be to check the EKG monitoring leads.

Disconnected leads will also produce "asystole."

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Andrew

--
Dr. Andrew B. Chung, MD/PhD
Board-Certified Cardiologist
heartmdphd.comheartmdphd.comOpen ↗

**
Who is the humblest person in the universe?
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What is all this about?
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(Dr. Andrew B. Chung said:

Better would be to check the EKG monitoring leads.

Disconnected leads will also produce "asystole."

True, but if it's an AED we're talking about then a disconnected lead produces a voice prompt to
check the leads. Most EKGs detect it too.

Beachhouse said:

maybe it's fine v-fib!!! 😉

Yeah, but I can get fine v-fib off my refrigerator!

Beachhouse said:

i'm guessing she wasn't hypothermic...

Correct.