Watching House again and a couple of times people have died (temporarily) when their hearts stop. But before they go they all mention pain. This reminded me of when people have heart attacks there’s pain in the chest and left arm.
But why would it hurt if the heart stops beating? Is it the nerves, muscles, whatever dying due to the lack of oxygen and nutrients or is it the brain screaming at itself that the heart has stopped and it’s in full panic mode?
In: Biology
two things to note here.
1. the heart does not stop beating during a heart attack, if the heart ever truly stops you aren’t temporarily dead, you are permanently dead. Plus the heart not beating isn’t actually the hart attack, its a cardiac arrest caused by the heart attack
2. Cardiac arrests are cause by the hearts rhythm going wrong in some way, the muscles are still contracting but not in the correct way to properly pump blood, Now usually in typical heart attacks this is caused by a blockage in one of the blood vessels that supplies the heart muscles themselves. The heart then doesn’t get enough oxygen and eventually the cells start to die, the hart can no longer move blood around effectively causing the cardiac arrest.
The pain people feel during the heart attack is essentially cramp, like all muscles when short on oxygen the body will start to rely on anaerobic respiration to generate energy and produce a buildup of lactic acid. The heart is no different in that regard
When your heart actually stops beating, you’ll pass out almost immediately, so you won’t feel anything (you might wake up during CPR; and then you’ll feel pain from the CPR).
However, in many cases, something is going on before your heart actually starts beating. That might be a heart attack, or a developing arrhythmia, or any number of other things. That might lead to pain, discomfort, palpitations, or any number of weird feelings.
However, if you just went straight into cardiac arrest, you would just lose consciousness.
As someone who has survived cardiac arrest, I can tell you that cardiac arrest is painless and quick. You lose consciousness almost immediately when your heart stops beating in a useful rhythm. The heart attack going on for 25 minutes prior is quite painful though.
Just for fun. [Some before and after images of my arteries.](https://imgur.com/a/Sm696PX)
My symptoms were a sudden painful, burning sensation across my entire chest area, a terrible cold sweat, and appearing pale as a ghost. I was just 40 years old with none of the usual risk factors.
Cardiac arrest and heart attacks are two different things. Not a doctor so I won’t pretend I know the details, but cardiac arrest is usually painless and quick. It’s like…. you’re fine and suddenly lights out, you’re unconscious and dead in a matter of minutes if your rhythm isn’t restored.
I survived 12 cardiac arrests in the span of 5 hours. My heart technically didn’t stop beating, it just quivered without rhythm and stopped beating effectively, which stopped blood from begin pumped around. I didn’t have a heart attack, just cardiac arrests. Defibrillated back to life in 11 of those cases and the only thing that physically hurt, was my rib-muscles from the repeated jolts of electricity to my chest.
To be quite honest, if I can choose the way I die, I’d choose that. Just not as young. It’s quick, painless and you don’t see it coming.
A lot of people have solid answers here, so I just wanted to go on record to say that House (and medical TV shows in general) are not medically accurate at all, so keep that in mind when you’re watching
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