Did Mother's Boy have a heart attack?

[Claire Oh Nette]

36. Heart Attack vs Cardiac arrest

Cardiac arrest is exactly that. The heart stops. A variety of things can cause this.

Heart Failure , or Congestive Heart Failure is a dx for long term damage caused by a backing up in the system and failure to pump blood efficiently over a long period of time. One does not have a sudden onset of CHF, and it can't be caused by a single event.

A heart attack is not a medical term. Heart Attack = myocardial infarction--an interruption in blood flow to the heart muscle itself, usually because of a blockage--narrowing, or a clot. Rare instances are caused by spontaneous tears in one of the three main coronary arteries. A heart attack can cause cardiac arrest, but won't always.

All heart attacks are Sudden. One minute you're heart is pumping along, and then a blockage happens.

Some cardiac arrhythmia (V-fib) can lead to "sudden acute cardiac death" in some patients. I have an ICD/pacemaker because I am at risk for v-tach/v-fib. My arrhythmia is a result of my first heart attack, and the second heart attack created an electrical short between the A-V node and the ventricular node, causing runs of BPM over 170.

The defense threw a lot of cardiac vocabulary at the jury, and seemed to deliberately muddy things up. Nelson said Floyd died from arrhythmia caused by hardening of the arteries and high blood pressure, in doctor-speak. Uh, that's simply not how a myo cardial infarc works.

Floyd's heart stopped due to lack of oxygen--end of discussion.