Cardiologist explains why children mostly suffer cardiac arrest, elderly heart attack

Recently, an 8-year-old student of class 3 died due to cardiac arrest in her school on January 6. She collapsed in her classroom while showing her notebook to a teacher and was immediately rushed to the Hospital. However, doctors confirmed that she was brought dead. In December, a boy from Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh died during sports practice in his school. He was 4. Several cases of children below 10 suffering have been reported in last some months.

Talking about the sudden rise in the case of cardiac arrest among children, Prof. Dr Tarun Kumar, Senior Interventional Cardiologist, Medanta Medicity, said that both heart attack and cardiac arrest are serious medical emergencies, but they are different conditions.

Dr Kumar said a heart attack occurs when a coronary artery becomes blocked, cutting off blood flow to the heart. This can happen when plaque builds up in the arteries, narrowing or blocking blood flow. A heart attack is a circulation problem that can cause the heart muscle to die if left untreated. 




Explaining about cardiac arrest, Dr Tarun Kumar said, “A cardiac arrest occurs when the heart’s electrical system malfunctions and the heart stops beating properly. This can be caused by an irregular heart rhythm, such as ventricular fibrillation, where the heart’s lower chambers beat chaotically. Cardiac arrest is an electrical problem that can be reversed if CPR is performed and a defibrillator shocks the heart”.

Dr Tarun Kumar has recently joined Medanta Medicity as the Senior Interventional Cardiologist. Prior to this new assignment, Dr Kumar was Professor of Cardiology at RML Hospital for many years.

While talking about the cardiac arrest in children, Dr Kumar said that cardiac arrest occurs mostly in children mainly because of Cardiomyopathies, arrhythmia’s and other genetic causes. Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle that causes the heart to have a harder time pumping blood to the rest of the body, which can lead to symptoms of heart failure. Cardiomyopathy also can lead to some other serious heart conditions, Dr Kumar said.

Dr Tarun Kumar said that while children mostly suffer with Cardiac arrest, elderly patients most common cause of cardiac arrest is heart attack only.