Heart attack vs cardiac arrest
AKA: Death Note is to heart attacks what Jaws is to sharks.
I wrote this out in response to some questions regarding CPR, AED usage and heart attacks on the Death Note Writers discord. Figured it might be helpful for other writers (Death Note or otherwise) so I’m also sharing it here!
Disclaimer: I AM NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL. I’m just someone who’s interested in this and has a mom in healthcare that cultivated that interest lol. I wrote this as a response to a question from someone on the server, off the top of my head. While I’m pretty sure this tracks, some factual/statistical things might be slightly off so don’t take this as absolute fact. Also, keep in mind that these are the two most ‘common’ terms people use and mix up symptoms and such of. There’s many more cardiac issues that exist and have different impacts and effects, and I encourage you to research those if you plan on writing about them! :)
A heart attack means blood flow slows or stops in one of the arteries causing infarction aka tissue death to the heart muscle.
Unlike the way it’s depicted in Death Note, heart attacks themselves aren’t actually all that lethal. In fact, it is not only possible, but very common that people suffer a heart attack without being aware of it. I think it’s like that for ~20% of all heart attacks actually.
A heart attack can cause cardiac arrest, but it’s not the same thing. It’s not uncommon for people to have several heart attacks, and the mortality rate fluctuates based on the severity and the underlying cause (plaque buildup, coronary artery spasms, clots, etc).
Cardiac arrest is the thing that will kill you. Literally if you wanna be technical™️ about it. The long and short of it is that cardiac arrest (it’s more complex and varied than this but tldr version) means there is no heartbeat. At all. When the heart no longer beats, the blood flow will cease and cut off oxygen supplies to the vital organs. Not to say it’s a 100% morality rate, because if CPR is administered timely and has a chance to be effective (which, isn’t always the case depending on the underlying cause of why the heart stopped beating in the first place), you can survive it.
That said, the survival rate of cardiac arrests outside of hospitals is 10%, and even lower when people have them at home (6% or so). Which is shitty because I think more than half of cardiac arrests outside of hospitals happen at home. That said, even in hospital, the statistics for survival are only around 20% or so.
PS. The main factor that’ll play into quality of life after successful resuscitation is how long the major organs (notably the brain) were without oxygen due to lack of blood flow.
