Heart attacks may cause immediate cardiac arrest or may progress to cardiac arrest. However, not every heart attack causes cardiac arrest.
Many people die before they reach a hospital.
The average person waits three hours before seeking help for symptoms of a heart attack. The sooner you get to the emergency room, the better your chance of not only surviving, but of lessening the damage done to your heart. These and other similar conditions block the supply of oxygen to an area of the heart, leading to damage or death of the cells in that area. Most often, this occurs in a coronary artery that has been narrowed from changes related to atherosclerosis . Babies and children rarely suffer heart attacks .