What To Do In Case Of Sudden Cardiac Arrest?

Adults of all ages can experience sudden cardiac arrest.

In such cases, the first aid to be applied to the patient can even save the life of the patient.

What To Do In Case Of Sudden Cardiac Arrest?

The first thing you do when you see someone who has passed out is to check for bleeding.

If there is bleeding, it is to try to stop the bleeding immediately. Listen to the breathing of the unconscious person.

If his breathing has stopped or he is snoring as if he is suffocating, apply artificial (artificial) respiration immediately. In case of an emergency, such as a person’s heart-stopping or not being able to breathe, the health institution is notified immediately.

On the other hand, the first aid to be applied is listed below, in order:

• Make sure that the person’s airway is open
• If breathing has stopped, give artificial respiration.
• If the heart is not beating, it is tried to restart the heartbeat with heart massage.
• Preparation for artificial respiration – Lay the patient on his back.
• Loosen his tie, collar and waist belt.
• Press your head back.
• While holding his forehead with one hand, open his mouth by pressing down on his lower jaw with the other.
• Look for the object blocking the airway with your thumb and middle finger.
• If his tongue has turned back and blocked the airway, pull the tongue forward to allow him to breathe.
• Turn the patient’s head to the side to prevent the tongue from escaping behind the throat again.
• If there are no wounds or fractures, turn the whole body to the side.
• If the patient’s breathing has stopped without an object obstructing the airways, give artificial respiration.

Caution: A foreign body, vomit material or the tongue of the patient may have blocked the airway.

The most obvious sign of this is that it makes sounds as if it is choking.

How Is Artificial Respiration Done?

• Kneel next to the supine patient.
• Loosen his collar and tie.
• Open your mouth with one hand on your forehead and the other on your lower jaw.
• Grasp the patient’s neck with the hand you use to separate the lower jaw and let the head hang back.
• Close the holes by squeezing his nose with the thumb and index fingers of the hand that you press on his forehead.
• While keeping the head back, take a deep breath and stick your mouth to the patient’s mouth.
• Blow with all your strength so that the patient’s lungs are filled with air. When your rib cage is inflated with the air you blow, pull your mouth away.
• Observe that the air you blow comes back through breathing and the swelling in the rib cage decreases.
• Stick your mouth to the victim’s mouth again and blow strongly. Keep your mouth open and wait for the air you blow out.

Repeat the same blowing process 15-20 times per minute until the doctor arrives. Cases, where the heart stops with respiration, are not rare.

Symptoms Indicating Cardiac Arrest

The symptoms listed below are among the symptoms of cardiac arrest:

• The patient’s face turned yellow.
• It is completely motionless and does not respond to any stimuli. Breathing has stopped.
• When you press your neck or wrist with your finger, no pulse beats are heard.
• When the eyelids are opened, it will be seen that the pupils dilate

How Is Cardiac Massage Done?

In the event that the heart cannot function for various reasons and cannot provide blood circulation, the first aid technique applied to ensure the circulation of the blood in the heart and the resumption of the heartbeat by putting pressure on the heart from the outside is called Cardiac Massage.

It is dangerous for people who do not know the CPR technique to perform CPR. CPR should never be performed on a working heart. Also, overloading the rib cage can cause the ribs to stick to the internal organs. For all these reasons, CPR should be done consciously.

How To Perform CPR In Adults?

First of all, the pulse should be checked in the jugular vein in the neck of the casualty and it should be ensured that the heartbeat has stopped.

If there is no pulse, the victim should be placed on his back on a hard surface. It is better to kneel, preferably on the right side of the casualty.

2 – 3 fingers up from the lower end of the sternum bone or the middle point of the bone should be determined and the middle-lower part of the lower half should be found.

The palm of one hand should be placed in this area and the other hand should be placed on it.

In order to give the applied force from a single point, only the palm of the hand should touch, the fingers should not come into contact with the rib cage.

Care should be taken not to bend the elbows in order to apply vertical pressure on the sternum.

It should be ensured that the rib cage goes down 4 cm with each pressure.

This process should be applied at a tempo of 80-100 times per minute.

Compression and relaxation times should be equal and the position of the hands on the chest should not change during the procedure.

The pulse should be checked at least every 3 minutes to see if the heart starts to work on its own.

CPR should be stopped as soon as the heart starts working independently.

If the heart has not started to work on its own, administration should be continued until medical help arrives.

How To Perform CPR In Children?

CPR is performed with one hand on average 2-3 cm from the sternum in children aged 2-8, and with two fingers up to 1-2 cm in children up to 2 years of age and 100 times per minute on average.

CPR in infants is performed with the thumbs one finger below the middle of both breast lines. Oxygen from the inhaled air reaches the brain through the blood.

The brain can withstand a lack of oxygen for a maximum of 5 minutes.

After this time, severe brain damage or death occurs. Therefore, it is necessary to start both artificial respiration and heart massage as soon as possible.

If there is only one first aider, he first gives artificial respiration 2 times, then he gives 30 heart massages and so on.

If there are two first aiders, one gives 30 heart massages and the other gives 2 times artificial respiration.

An adult should be given 75 heart massages and 15 artificial respirations per minute.

Warning

Cardiac massage should be performed by people who have been trained in this regard and who have a certificate. If a working heart is massaged, it can cause the heart to stop

If you are a doctor, you should definitely read our article about Resuscitation.