Cardiac arrest, which is what occurs when the heart stops pumping rhythmically and your patient no longer has a pulse, can be difficult to predict. Therefore, it’s often called sudden cardiac arrest, or SCA. However, as a trained health care professional, you should always be prepared for unexpected events such as this and should guard against them by being able to recognize certain signs and symptoms as well as risk factors that could lead to [...]

Have you ever been part of a code where everything seemed to be spiraling out of control? Perhaps everyone was shouting something different, no one had the materials and medications that were needed and you had no idea what you were supposed to be doing. While this may be the reality in some situations, a well-operated code in the hospital or other health care setting should always be more organized and calmer than what was just described. Other than [...]

A myocardial infarction, commonly called a heart attack, occurs when blood flow to a part of the heart is blocked. This is a health care emergency because, without fast repair, part of the heart muscle can completely die. In turn, this leads to long-term problems, such as congestive heart failure. In fact, in some severe cases, patients are at risk of sudden cardiac death if the part of the heart with the natural pacemaker function fails. As a health [...]