cardiac arrest

Has anyone survived a cardiac arrest.
I have had a CRDT device fitted, two years ago and last week had a cardiac arrest , blacked out for 25 seconds , then defib kicked in and came to..
Any ideas what the cause is and what the long term effects are.
Previously I was really quite fit.

3 Comments

Welcome to the club Grant

by IAN MC - 2015-08-07 12:08:58

I don't know if this is a first or not but Grant & I are neighbours and have known each other for many years.

I always thought that in-built defibrillators were meant to kick in before you black out , or am I wrong on that ? Is this a settings issue or do defibrillators simply not have enough time to kick in ?

Also should I be financially rewarded for recruiting new PM club members ??

Cheers

Ian

Undefined heart event

by Theknotguy - 2015-08-07 12:08:59

Doctors called mine an undefined heart event. For some people, as they get older, the heart just decides to stop beating for seconds. Sometimes permanently.

Fortunately the medics were there the second time and I was in the ER the third. Total of six times of which I am aware. Not a good way to go.

Long term effects are you end up dead. Short term events can be brain damage, damage to eyes, and damage to other things in the body.

I lost my mental time and calendar functions. Took me a year to get my mental calendar back. Have a real problem accessing the mental dictionary. Will be having a conversation, come up to a word I'd like to use, can't recall it. That's taken almost two years to come back. Eye doctor took a picture of my retina. Showed me a patch that had been damaged when my heart rate was 20. That explained the cloud I was seeing after I got out of the hospital. Took a year for the body to adjust to that.

My suggestion is to avoid it if you can. When they offer the PM to prevent it, take advantage of the offer. It's nice going around not having to worry about the heart stopping for no apparent reason. Not to mention I really didn't like waking up on the trail with the dogs licking my face. And the big question was what if it happened when I was driving? That didn't happen but it could have.

And yes, the heart has decided to quit beating a couple of times after I got the PM. Really strange to feel the light headed feeling, then have the PM kick in and order the heart to keep going. But I prefer it to the alternative.

Oh, and it's taken me over two years to get back into the shape I was before having the problem. But I've also had to deal with a broken rib, collapsed lung, three cracked ribs, and a chest tube. Getting over the effects of all that takes time. And I won't even go into dealing with heart issues and medications. All of that takes time. But you can come back. It hasn't been a year yet.... That was my mantra for the first year. It hasn't been two years yet.... Is my new mantra.

Hope this answers your questions.

Cardiac arrest

by Kash07 - 2015-09-11 06:09:23

It really depends on your settings. My first and only shock was administered after I had gone into full arrest and blacked out. Took all of 15 seconds from black out to waking up.

Long term effects like everything else we are all different, you never know how your body will react.

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