"The Bollywood Heart Attack"

We’ve some advice for anyone who has watched too many of those Bollywood medical dramas, where someone suffers a heart attack and collapses. The paramedics arrive. The heart monitor reveals a flat line – no heartbeat – but a heroic effort saves the character’s life. It makes fine drama, says Dr. R.N. Kalra, Medical Director & Ceo R&D, Kalra Hospital. In real life, the outcome is almost always different.

At Kalra Hospital, we execute the Chain of Survival, a series of steps to follow to improve a person’s chances of survival. Ideally, a bystander recognizes that someone has gone into cardiac arrest, and calls emergency immediately.

If the person collapses, is unresponsive, and is not breathing, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) should be performed, while emergency medical personnel are on their way. But here, Dr. Kalra offers another reality check: CPR alone revives fewer than five per cent of victims. However, CPR can ensure an adequate supply of oxygen, and prevent brain damage until the paramedics arrive.

After a cardiac arrest, Dr. Kalra says, a person’s heart is usually quivering like "a bowl of jelly," a condition known as fibrillation, because normal electrical activity has been badly disrupted. Paramedics can re-establish the heartbeat by administering an electric shock with a portable defibrillator. "It stops the disorganized electrical activity momentarily," says Dr. Kalra, "just long enough to re-set the nodes, which are like the sparkplugs of the heart."

The final step in the Chain of Survival does bear some resemblance to those Bollywood medical dramas. The victim is lifted into the ambulance, and whisked to the nearest hospital where doctors and nurses do work heroically to stabilize the heart and, hopefully, save yet another life.

Excerpts by Dr. R.N. Kalra
Medical Director & Ceo R&D
Kalra Hospital & SRCNC

By Dr. Ankur Kalra
Ceo e-Medicine & Promotions
Kalra Hospital & SRCNC