Heart attack
 

Guys

Sad news, a very good friend of mine suffered a major heart attack last night.
He was down and out - heart stopped.
The paramedics revived him, but I don't know how long he was gone for.

Totally devastated.

He is now in a medically induced coma and in intensive care.
How long does one stay in said coma for?
Presumably this is to allow the body to recover from the trauma?

Sorry to hear this. He is good hands though. The medics will do their very best for him.

Sorry to hear the bad news. If all the other organs are working well they will try and wake him up very soon. The degree of brain damage he might have suffered will depend on the 'down time' and quality of cpr.

They will switch off the sedation to see how he wakes up. This is assuming that his heart holds out and no other organs fail.

I've spent years as an ICU doctor and trust me I've seen plenty of people defy the odds and survive when we all thought there was little hope.

Sorry if that all sounds a bit blunt and uncaring but I think you want the truth.

Good luck

Sorry to hear this matey.

I hope I am wrong in this case but instances where people are out for more than three to four minutes mean they are less likely leave the coma and they tend not to last more than a few days. It takes a highly skilled team to keep someone going while they're out for long - and that's assuming they witnessed the arrest and acted immediately.

I hope you get good news as soon as possible. People do get lucky and there are many among us who walk around with tales of having a team bounce up and down on their chest for several minutes.

My dad had a massive heart attack 2 years ago, he had to be brought back 6 times. He was in critical care for a about a week.

He's now running around like nothing happened.

Chances of making a good recovery are so much better these days.

I wish your freind all the best

Tragic, I know. But I think the prognosis depends on how long between him going unconscience and getting CPR as well as if the hearts rythum stopping or becomming irregular - sometimes a fibrillating heart can still pump. Just a few minutes of blood flow loss and that makes the difference to brain damage. Not stopping the CPR for any reason until a heart rythum is restored. Easier said than done.

It happened to my dad in front of me; He didnt survive. the problem is when it happens in front of you, you arent really aware of what's happening until the breathing stops and pupils dilate, with no paramedic around its down to whoever is nearby, feeling for pulses is difficult in a panic, and if one does return along with breathing you are tempted to stop the CPR, but really you should continue. Sorry to be graphic, but I am talking from experience; I do believe if I knew what I know now back then, I think things may have been different.

All the best for your friend; there is always hope. Plenty people do pull through this.

Mate had heart attack at 45. After that he throw away his deep fat fryer

As I understand it boils down to how long the brain is with out oxygen that will determine the seriousness.

Unfortunately it's just a waiting game. I spent a year in hospital which included a coma and 6 weeks in ICU. I have had to be brought back in surgery and have had massive organ failure which resulted in my family being taken to the dreaded room to be told I only had 24 hours to live.

The truth is that if the doctor's had a definitive answer they would have said, and even then they can be wrong. All you can do is be there for him if he wakes up and give him as much of a reason as you can to live.

Thanks for the replies.
@Dindongler - not blunt at all, thank you.

He's only 42 :( but he is overweight, although had been doing something about it over the last month and a bit.
Lost about 1.5 stone during that time, bringing weight down to 16stone

Fingers crossed. A tragedy in someone so young.

Any news yet?

my thoughts are with your friend and his family.

I cannot add anything more to what has been said already because it's exactly what happens.

Sorry to hear it,because my mom had heart attack 2 years ago!and even when out of hospital its not over.
Just depends on the person and the damage its caused I think.But my mom lost part of the brain area that control memory and walking.its can very stressful on family,and needs much support to see it through.After two years is only starting to walk unaided again,but memory is still fuzzy,even forgets who my dad is.At 70 years old and you lived life perfectly,it can be hard to see someone change character.

Fingers Crossed for him
Steve

Sad news indeed. As others have said, heart issues and its treatment have come on massively over the past 25 years. Hope he makes a steady recovery.

Sadly nothing yet.

Plus, I don't want to bug his wife trying to get news, but I also don't want to be seen as not caring.

I still don't know if his wife attempted CPR, I would imagine the emergency call staff would have provided guidance of some description.
I guessing the rapid response unit was with him in approx 5 minutes.

999 emergency does instruct to do CPR, but its very scripted. So the questions are "is the person breathing", "can you feel a pulse" etc.

In May I was unfortunate enough to have to give CPR while in Spain, the emergency service person on the end of the phone instructed a sharp bang on the chest and CPR.

Sadly the 70 year old lady didn't make it even though I spent 20 mins giving CPR to her, I think she was just too far gone when i go there (a couple of mins after she was found by her husband)

I am a trained first aider.

They do have a strange system over there.

Everyone should be BLS trained, I am honestly shocked at how many people don't know this basic skill.

Sadly I got some terrible news last night.
He is effectively brain dead, and the next step for the family is to decide when to turn off life support :(

Really sorry to hear the bad news:(

That's tragic news. So sorry for his family and his friends like yourself. I am sure you will give support to his family over the next few weeks.

David

:( sorry mate.

So so sad, be there for them mate, they'll need it :(

That's terrible news, mate.

Couldn't (and hope never will) imagine being in that situation when the decision to turn the machine off is yours.

Always that nagging 'what if....they may get better' doubt.

This must be the biggest $hitty stick life could throw at someone.

Thoughts are with you.

Sorry to hear that

How common is this, as a result of straight heart attack i wonder, and how long was it before paramedics arrived

Sorry to hear the sadder news. Be strong for them.

Terrible news. :( My heart goes out to your friend and his loved ones.

It's unfortunately a decision I've experienced from both sides, as a relative and also as a clinician. It's horrible.

In 2010 we made the decision to turn my Grandmother's machine off and it took nearly three days for her body to fail. I don't think I'll ever come to terms with the loss, yet she was 78.

The pain of losing someone in the forties must be unbearable heartache. My heart goes out to everyone involved, absolutely gutted for the OP and his friend's family.

That's tragic news. :( I can't give much words of support and I'm sure the "what ifs" will domineer with those affected. What I will say, it doesn't matter, as that is how it is and how it was. So many factors can be thought about in which events may have been different, but equally sometimes even with the bestest of efforts the circumstances at the time cannot be changed and that is how things turned out to be.

dpb; there's no such thing as a straight heart attack; My dad was ill during the day he died with stomach indigestion from what he thought was due to the after affects from the night before (beers+curry)....what that indigestion was actually his heart giving up. That wasn't his first heart attack - just the last one....the first one was where he had a funny turn whilst on holiday, passed out and carried on for a few days struggling to breath or move and he waited 'til he got back to the UK before seeing a doctor. Granted on other occasions someone may just suffer a massive heart attack, but either way the time taken for paramedics to arrive is irrelevant; The severity of the heart attack is the most crucial. I've gone through that in my head a billion times. Paramedics seemed to take an eternity to arrive, in reality it was probably 10 minutes or less. Yes I gave CPR during that time. But to be blunt, he was dead when he hit the floor.

When I had a few days off from work I saw a "Helicopter Rescue" where one of the operators suffered a heart attack. It was edited quite well and seemed to show exactly what I experienced. Even there the guy had to have treatment before Paramedics were able to arrive and it was only down to his co-workers knowledge that he survived; They saw the problem before the average person would have even realised, so they were ready. In most situations that would simply not be the case.

Sorry if the above may seem a bit coarse for this thread, its a subject I'm rather sensitive about for obvious reasons, so apologies about that.

Tragic :( My dad died when I was pretty young of a different cause and I miss him seeing me as a something other than a teenager.... and the rest of my family

The stats on unstable acute coronary syndrome are quite sobering, 5% loss of survival for each 30 secs without chest compressions in the first 4-5 minutes.

I'm not sure about vinny jones but his inclusion in a campaign for early chest compressions was welcome....... if you don't know it then google it now and stop and think

Shaun