Signs and Symptoms
Cardiac arrest is an abrupt cessation of pump function in the heart (as evidenced by the absence of a palpable pulse). Prompt intervention can usually reverse a cardiac arrest, but without such intervention it will almost always lead to death. In certain cases, it is an expected outcome to a serious illness.
However, due to inadequate cerebral perfusion, the patient will be unconscious and will have stopped breathing. The main diagnostic criterion to diagnose a cardiac arrest, (as opposed to respiratory arrest which shares many of the same features), is lack of circulation; however, there are a number of ways of determining this. Near death experiences are reported by 10-20% of people who survived cardiac arrest.
Read more about this topic: Cardiac Arrest
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