On March 4 2018, the whole footballing world was struck with the news that Fiorentina captain Davide Astori had died in his sleep. Many didn’t believe it, they couldn’t handle it, former teammates Carlos Sanchez and Diego Lopez collapsed after they heard the news. Source

This was a player hale and hearty with no disease symptoms at all. All Italian Serie A and B matches were postponed, UEFA declared that a minute silence should be observed in the UEFA champions league and Europa league matches that will be played that week. 2 days later, the result from an autopsy conducted revealed the cause of death as Cardiac Arrest. Source

Fiorentina and his former club Cagliari retired the number 13 jersey worn by Davide Astori to honour him. Fiorentina recently announced that their training ground will be named after him to keep his memories alive. Source

It would have been better if Davide Astori was alive, if he had survived the cardiac arrest. His partner and daughter will be happy if they can trade the worldwide recognition he garnered from his death for him being alive. The glooms over the footballing world would have been avoided.
Many will wonder, Footballers are some of the healthiest individuals on earth, they undergo medicals, the game of soccer is even an exercise, so why the cardiac arrest.

This will lead us to the topic Cardiac arrest and you: Symptoms, Causes, Prevention, and Treatment

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What is Cardiac Arrest?

In the human body system, the heart plays a vital role, as it serves as the power room that pumps blood to other organs of the body. The food you eat are dissolved in the body. Therefore, we can say the blood contains the nutrients, oxygen needed by other parts/organs of the body.

In a more vivid explanation, the heart is likened to a motor engine, while the blood is the oil/fuel. As long as there is oil/fuel, the engine runs, when there is no oil/fuel. The engine comes to a halt.

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Therefore, Cardiac arrest occurs when there is no blood flow in the body system which results in the heart to stop pumping blood. The heart stops the routine process of pumping blood round the body. This leads to shutdown of the whole body system because the organs of the body needs the nutrients present in the blood to survive. The individual affected can die in minutes if not attended to immediately. Normally the blood contains oxygen, but when it is not pumped anymore, the brain lacks oxygen which makes the victim to stop breathing or start breathing erratically and falls unconsciously.

Symptoms of Cardiac arrest

Cardiac arrest symptoms are usually acute and requires urgent attention. They include:

• Fatigue
• Breath loss or irregular breathing
• Chest pain
• Absence of pulse
• Absence of consciousness
• Unconscious falling Source

Risk factors

These are the factors that puts individuals at risk of having cardiac arrest. If an individual undergoes some or all of this activities below, he/she has a high chance of suffering cardiac arrest. These factors include:

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• Smoking of cigarette
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• High cholesterol/blood pressure
• Age (The increase in age increases the chances of having cardiac arrest)
• Gender (Male are more likely to suffer a cardiac arrest than woman) Source

Causes

There are numerous actions, diseases that can cause cardiac arrest, some among them are

• Coronary Artery disease
• Congenital heart disease
• Heart attack
• Arrhythmias

Prevention

Ways to prevent suffering of cardiac arrest includes

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• Regular checkups
• Abstain from smoking
• Engage in exercise to stay active
• Eat balanced diet

Treatment

Treatment should be immediate for an individual that just suffered a cardiac arrest.

CPR

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Performing CardioPulmonary Resuscitation CPR immediately is crucial to the individual survival. CPR involves chest compressions of the individual at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute. Artificial ventilation should be provided by using either an external device or mouth to mouth resuscitation. Source

Defibrillation

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This involves the use of a Defibrillator. Ventricular fibrillation can be rectified through the use of a defibrillator which gives an electric shock through the chest wall to the heart. This stops the irregular heartbeat, therefore reverting the heartbeat to its normal way. Source

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It is believed that this article will serve as an eye opener to all of us, as we all know what cardiac arrest is, the symptoms, causes, and treatments.

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References

Mayoclinic
Mayoclinic
Goal
Goal
Wiki
Wiki
Wiki
Bhf

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Adieu Davide Astori

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