Adopting a Different Strategy for Treating Children with Heart Disease

Timely Intervention Prevents Side Effects Such as Brain Damage

Heart disease is one of the worst killers around the world and has grave consequences. While a person’s quality of life, lifestyle, eating habits and stress have a strong impact on the risk of heart disease the treatment procedure too differs depending on the individual’s prior diagnosis of the same. The American Heart Association has revealed that treating a child with heart disease whose heart had stopped requires a different approach than saving a child with a healthy heart.

A journal statement published shows that cardiac arrest in the hospital is 10 times common among children with congenital heart defects or other acquired conditions compared to children with healthy hearts. Resuscitation and CPR techniques that’s been developed for children with healthy hearts are less effective on those kids with heart disease. Even medications that improve blood flow during CPR in children with any heart condition is not yet well-known. The functioning of the heart differs in such children and can even limit blood flow to the lungs or the rest of the body. Only if physicians understand the physiological and anatomical differences in kids with cardiovascular diseases such as single ventricle congenital heart disease, cardiomyopathy and pulmonary hypertension it might be of help in preventing cardiac arrests. This understanding plays a critical role in improving chances of survival.
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Whether the kid has suffered from a heart disease or not, anyone near the heart disease victim should be able to perform the basic life support. Researchers do highlight the point that most patients outside hospital settings don’t suffer from congenital heart disease and hence, physicians too don’t have much experience regarding resuscitation of these kids. Medical care has improved and technology is reaching new heights enabling many children to survive complicated heart surgeries and its time that physicians start focusing on helping children overcome cardiac arrests without side effects such as brain damage. Read more about cardiac arrests and its dangerous consequences by visiting the website www.firsteatright.com.

The need to prevent cardiac arrest is as important as having a good operation. The CPR plays a great role in minimizing dangerous consequences, increasing survival chances and improving the quality of life of cardiac arrest patients. One study shows that survival rates almost tripled from 14% in 2000 to 43% in 2009 based on efforts to improve CPR. It is essential that each of us learn to perform basic life support and save as many lives as possible.