Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart abruptly stops beating properly and can no longer pump blood to vital organs throughout the body. While often referred to interchangeably, cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack. A heart attack is when blood flow to the heart is blocked, and sudden cardiac arrest is when the heart malfunctions and suddenly stops beating unexpectedly. A heart attack is a “circulation” problem and sudden cardiac arrest is an “electrical” problem. Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) are more dangerous because they can lead to death within minutes if no one performs CPR or uses a defibrillator to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm.
