Eli5: what is the difference between a heart attack and a cardiac arrest?
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If I understand the first post:
A heart attack can cause cardiac arrest, but a cardiac arrest is not necessarily a heart attack.
Heart attack = faulty or blocked blood flow to the heart
Cardiac arrest = heart stops
So DeMar Hamlin had a cardiac arrest on the football field, but not a heart attack because it wasn’t impaired blood flow to his heart that caused it to stop. (Or do we know that for sure now?)
A drug addict could have a cardiac arrest without necessarily having a heart attack.
This makes sense. A woman I know had a heart attack, but it was so mild she didn’t really notice until she went to the ER because she was feeling off. They told her she’d had a mild heart attack.
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