Rohan Mirchandani, CEO of popular Greek yogurt brand Epigamia, died of a sudden cardiac arrest on Saturday (December 21) at age 42. His death sparked concerns about whether younger Indians are at risk, considering Indians are genetically more prone to developing heart disease a decade earlier than other populations.
What is a sudden cardiac arrest?
A sudden cardiac arrest is described as a condition where the heart comes to a standstill and loses all its activity due to an irregular heart rhythm. You can say that the heart’s electrical system malfunctions and shuts down. The heart beats very fast and its ventricles quiver, what is called ventricular fibrillation. The lower chambers contract in a very rapid and uncoordinated manner.
As a result of these irregular electrical impulses, the heart cannot pump oxygenated blood that your body needs. In the first few minutes, the blood flow to the brain is poor, causing the patient to lose consciousness. And within eight minutes, all major organs shut down in the absence of a blood flow.
A person has to be given cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) within the first two minutes for chances of survival. If CPR is not administered, sudden cardiac arrest can be fatal within eight minutes. Brain damage can occur in just five minutes.
How is a sudden cardiac arrest different from a heart attack?
Sudden cardiac arrest isn’t the same as a heart attack. A heart attack is the result of plaque blockages and clotting in arteries that restrict blood flow to the heart, causing muscle scarring. A sudden cardiac arrest is not caused by a blockage. However, if the heart attack can change the heart’s electrical impulses, then it could become a trigger for a sudden cardiac arrest.
A heart attack is quickly identifiable with ECG changes. A sudden cardiac arrest doesn’t give you that time at all. If admitted in time, a heart attack patient has an over 90 per cent chance at survival.
When does a heart attack trigger a cardiac arrest?
Overall, almost 80 per cent of sudden cardiac arrest cases in people over 40 stems from coronary artery disease. Even if you have blockages/plaques less than 70 per cent, which do not show up in conventional tests, you could be at risk.
During strenuous exercise, the covering of the plaque breaks and gets dislodged. The blood flowing over the top of the torn plaque clots to heal the gap, causing a big blockage in the artery that can result in a heart attack. Now an untreated or unprepared heart, which was used to less than 70 per cent of heart blockage, may trigger wild changes in heartbeats, which can trigger a sudden cardiac arrest.
What causes conditions for a sudden cardiac arrest?
Usually, it is a prevailing history of heart blockages, which may trigger severe arrhythmia. Sometimes it is due to low heart pumping efficiency, or genetic conditions like cardiomyopathy, which stiffen the heart muscles to the extent that they are not able to pump blood properly to the rest of the human body. Sometimes, it could be triggered due to changes to your heart’s structure because of disease or infection or because of extreme blood loss due to some other injury. But what is worrisome is that it happens to a lot of asymptomatic people, making them the high risk group.
What are the symptoms?
Since the onset is very sudden sending you into a fainting spell, do not ignore any pain in the jaw, neck or chest area. Don’t wait and attribute it to gas or acidity. A persistent discomfort should not be overlooked. This may be accompanied by shortness of breath, weakness, a fast-beating, fluttering or pounding heart.
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