Post-Cardiac Arrest Syndrome Case Study

42 years old male patient with no past medical history, was brought to the emergency department by paramedics. He had flew from Hawaii to Los Angeles for Business. He was having lunch with his colleagues and suddenly collapsed and went into cardiac arrest. EMT reported he went into ventricular fibrillation arrest, status post defibrillator (countershock) x 5, epinephrine was given x3 then amiodarone 450 mg and return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) was noted. In the emergency department, patient was intubated and hemodynamic stable. On the process, he developed acute respiratory failure with hypoxia, leukocytosis, aspiration pneumonia, acute encephalopathy, hematuria, hypertension, and bilateral deep vein thrombosis. Acute respiratory failure with hypoxia is caused by inadequate alveolar ventilation (hypoventilation) and impaired gas

Changes in the brain will be that some parts are not getting the blood supply which then leads to dead tissue causing a form of disability depending on the area of the brain affected.

It is also unclear if it is the brain injury itself that causes the result and if it is the same for healthy people.

Evidence-Based Practice, Step by Step: Asking the Clinical Question: A Key Step in Evidence-Based Practice

It is a beneficial treatment that should be implemented as early in patient care as possible, such as, within the EMS system. Through the last century this therapy has been accepted and rejected by many medical professionals. Since medicine is an ever-changing field, future research and practice of hypothermia will dictate if this therapy is more beneficial than harmful, and maybe one day could be a permanent major role, or it may never be used again. Hypothermia has been proved to decrease neurological impairment after cardiac arrest, but also has many limitations that can occur. A major limitation of this therapy is, if continued care cannot be guaranteed by receiving hospitals, therapeutic hypothermia is irrelevant for EMS to initiate. Likewise, if hypothermia is not begun in the field by EMS, then the receiving facilities now will have a delayed time in starting the therapy and anoxic brain injury could have already occurred. EMS agencies can drive the implementation of therapeutic hypothermia in the medical field. This therapy allows EMS providers to have a major role in the outcome of a cardiac arrest patient’s recovery and neurological outcome. With the progression of research and practice, medicine is evolving day after day, and patient mortality and morbidity have decreased over the years. Although, cardiac arrest patients have a poor

American Heart Association (AHA) estimates that nearly 700 Americans die each day of sudden cardiac arrest (MI), or 250,000 every year, as many as 50,000 lives could be saved each year if certain critical interventions were made. (Freeman , 50) A patient who receives early life support measures and defibrillation within one to five minutes of arrest is much more likely to live and to retain normal brain function. The brain is often at a serious risk for irreparable brain damage related to anoxia and many other co-morbidities that are associated with cardiac arrest (MI). When a perfusing cardiac rhythm returns after a heart attack, the most important objective is to preserve brain function. The AHA and the Advanced Life Support Task Force of

Knowing the symptoms of a brain injury is important but, getting treated is even more

Some of the long term effects that are stated in the article Long Term Effects of Brain Injuries are server problems with attention and short-term memory, having difficulty performing daily tasks, and feeling “slower” overall are just some of the thing that I’ve learn to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

For a long time, traumatic brain injury has been a large contributor to disabilities and death within the United States. Around 30 percent of these injuries lead to death, and those who survive these injuries may suffer from short-term side effects to long-term disabilities. It can range from a minor head injury to a major injury that you might suffer from a motorcycle accident.

The lack or delay in appropriate treatment for individuals who experience a sudden cardiac arrest has created a major public health disparity. Research into pre-hospital treatment and subsequent implementation has historically seen neglect by the medical and scientific community creating vast differences in survivability of cardiac arrests between demographic groups. In 2010, the American Heart Association and Emergency Cardiovascular Care program developed the 2020 impact goal to reduce death from cardiovascular disease and stroke by 20% and double out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival rates (http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/121/4/586#sec-1). This has prompted a massive influx of research into the disparities that exist and an

Participation in high intensity sporting activities is widely considered to be a contributor to positive cardiac health. However, for a portion of the athletic population, sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) poses a serious risk (Chatard, Mujika, Goiriena, & Carre, 2016). Although considered rare with estimates of one death every three days in the United States (Pigozzi, Rizzo, & Maffulli, 2009), the impact of the often-fatal event resonates through society due to the young age of the athlete and the immediacy of the decline of the perceived healthy person (Chatard et al., 2016).

The way people act after a TBI accident. This may cause problems in the future. “Several complications can occur immediately or soon after a traumatic brain injury. Severe injuries increase the risk of a greater number of complications and more-severe complications.”. TBI severity is determined by the damage done to the brain from the force of impact.

Without early intervention on average 360,000 people out of the hospital succumb to cardiac arrest. “ Cardiac arrest and sudden death account for 60 percent of all deaths from coronary artery disease”,(Bledsoe, Porter, & Cherry, 2011,2007,2004, p. 1229)There are several causes of sudden cardiac arrest. Most are caused by ventricular fibrillation. “During ventricular fibrillation, the ventricles do not beat normally. Instead they quiver rapidly and irregularly.” When this occurs, the heart pumps very little and blood does not get circulated throughout the body. “ Most of the cases found with sudden cardiac death are related to undetected cardiovascular disease.("Sudden Cardiac Death," 2015, para. 2)Sudden cardiac arrest are immediate and drastic that includes sudden collapse, no pulse, not breathing, and loss of consciousness. “Four rhythms produce pulseless cardiac arrest: ventricular fibrillation, rapid ventricular tachycardia, pulseless electrical activity and asystole.”("Circulation ," 2005, p. IV-58)Other signs and symptoms that could occur prior to sudden cardiac arrest, include fatigue,

Serious injury could be a broken extremity, spinal injury, head trauma or brain damage. The injuries could lead to long-term consequences that result in a person becoming a parapalegic or serious neurological damage. It might even result in death. This is why there are serious labor laws in the state to protect workers.

Traumatic brain injury occurs when a person is hit in the head with a blunt force. This significant force to the head can happen playing recreational sports, on the playground, being in a car or motorcycle accident, falling down at home and your head impacting something, a blast or explosion. Traumatic brain injuries are also the leading cause of fatality rate and disability, especially in children, young adults and elderly. TBI is a devastating condition that affects millions of people nationwide, because it can affect the nervous system permanently, it also messes with the neurological, musculoskeletal, cognitive and much more. TBI force a family to deal with not just the physical disability, with the behavioral and emotional roller