What is cardiac arrest?

Cardiac arrest (or sudden cardiac arrest, sudden cardiac death) is a medical emergency. When a person stops breathing and the heart stops beating, then a person is experiencing cardiac arrest. (It is not a heart attack, which is when the blod supply to the heart is slowed or stopped because of a blockage.)

Cardiac arrest may have a variety of causes – heart disease, drowning, stroke, electrocution, suffocation, drug overdose, motor vehicle or other injury.

If you find someone experiencing cardiac arrest, you must act quickly. With each passing minute, the probability of survival declines by 7% to 10%. When CRP and defibrillation are used together, survival rates may increase to more than 50%.

Learn more about cardiac arrest warning signs.

Last reviewed March 2008.