Cardiorespiratory arrest is the moment when the heart stops functioning and the person stops breathing, making it necessary to have a cardiac massage to make the heart beat again.
Cardiorespiratory arrest can be caused by several causes, but, most of the time, it occurs due to heart problems. It can happen when the person is apparently healthy or when he is already in the hospital, even though he is already in treatment.
First aid in cardiorespiratory arrest
What should be done in cardiorespiratory arrest is to immediately call an ambulance, calling 192, and start cardiac massage, so that the person is more likely to survive. To do cardiac massage and mouth-to-mouth breathing, you need:
- Call for the victim, in an attempt to check whether he is conscious or not; If the person is unconscious, Basic Life Support should be initiated, checking if the victim breathes and if there are noises of air coming out of the victim's mouth or nose; If the person breathes normally, it should be placed in a lateral safety position and call 192, otherwise, it should be called immediately to the health service and start the basic life support maneuvers; Unscrew the clothes to facilitate the breathing and tilting the victim's head back to facilitate the passage of air through the throat; then 30 chest compressions should be done in a rhythmic manner, followed by two insufflations, also called mouth-to-mouth breathing, which can be done with the aid of a specific mask, if the person who is assisting you does not feel comfortable doing mouth-to-mouth breathing.
Compressions and insufflations should be done until the victim regains consciousness or until help arrives, informing the rescuer what was done, how many cycles of chest compressions were done, if insufflation was done and what happened.
This fun and light video shows what to do if you encounter a cardiac arrest victim on the street:
Symptoms of cardiorespiratory arrest
The main symptoms of cardiopulmonary arrest are severe chest pain, shortness of breath, cold sweat, feeling of palpitation, dizziness and fainting and blurred or blurred vision.
In addition to these symptoms, signs such as the absence of a pulse and lack of breathing movements appear, which clearly indicates that the heart has stopped beating and that the person has stopped breathing.
Main causes
Cardiorespiratory arrest can be caused by several situations, such as bleeding, hemorrhage, accidents, generalized infections, neurological problems, acute myocardial infarction, respiratory infection, lack of oxygen and lack or excess of blood sugar, for example.
Regardless of the causes, cardiorespiratory arrest is a very serious situation that requires urgent medical attention. Learn about other causes of cardiac arrest.
