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There have been fresh calls for restrictions on the sale of the painkiller ibuprofenafter another study found it heightens the risk of cardiac arrest. Taking the over-the-counter drug was associated with a 31% increased risk, researchers in Denmark found. Other medicines from the same group of painkillers, known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), presented an even higher risk, according to the findings published on Wednesday in the European Heart Journal. Read More...

Sue Chlebek was on her regular three-mile walk with a friend one spring morning when she told her companion she was so short of breath, she must be dominating the conversation. About two hours later, she went into sudden cardiac arrest just seconds after arriving at a hospital emergency room. Doctors shocked her heart back into rhythm with a defibrillator and then deployed a stent to open a blocked artery. Some 1,000 Americans a day suffer sudden cardiac arrest, a catastrophic event...

SAN DIEGO — Gasping patients in cardiac arrest tend to have better outcomes. This research finding was shared by Dr. Gordon Ewy at the Emergency Cardiovascular Care Update 2015. According to Ewy, while breathing comes from the brain, gasping comes from the brainstem. For patients in v-fib cardiac arrest, gasping starts around the two-minute mark, crescendoing in frequency, and then decrescendoing until stopping about five minutes into an arrest. For patients who had witnessed arrests, 55 percent were found to be gasping...

In a world first, doctors at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute have used computer gaming technology to help better diagnose patients suffering from a heart rhythm disease. This life threatening, electrical disorder kills hundreds of thousands of Americans every year by stopping the heart from pumping blood effectively – causing sudden death.   Read More...

WALNUT CREEK, Calif -- A middle school student was recovering after a weekend basketball game nearly turned tragic, when he into apparent cardiac arrest. City officials and the boys' coach credited the presence of an automated external defibrillator with saving the 14-year-old's life after he collapsed near midcourt 90 seconds into the second half of a CYO game at the Tice Valley Community Gym on Saturday. "He was running down the court, and just before he got to midcourt, his knees buckled...

It was a tragedy of errors. In a blistering report, the feds ripped the Upper East Side clinic where comedian Joan Rivers went into cardiac arrest. The report concluded that Yorkville Endoscopy “failed to ensure that patient care services are provided in a manner that protects the health and safety of all patients.” The biggest blunder cited in the document was that physicians in charge of Rivers’ care “failed to identify deteriorating vital signs and provide timely intervention during the procedure.” Rivers died...

What started as a high school science project for two brothers from New York is now a patented medical device that its creators hope will save people from sudden cardiac death. The young men, John Di Capua Jr., 22, and his brother, Christopher, 18, set out to find a way to improve survival rates for people who suffer heart failure and receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation outside a hospital. The odds of living through such a catastrophic event are dismal: less than 10 percent of people...

NAPLES — The idea came from a broom handle and plunger. Now, part-time Naples resident Joe Hanson has federal approval to market his new CPR device that makes chest compressions easy for cardiopulmonary resuscitation on adults, including audio that times the procedure. Dr. Robert Tober, emergency medical services director in Collier County, has been helping Hanson with his invention, called CPR RsQ Assist, to make it a must-have piece of equipment for performing hands-only CPR. “The device is self-prompting and virtually foolproof,” Tober...

SEATTLE, WA--Someone who has a cardiac arrest in King County has a greater chance of survival than anyone else in the world, according the latest analysis by county officials. The survival rate for cardiac arrest in King County hit an all-time high of 62 percent in 2013.[1] By comparison, the cardiac survival rates in New York City, Chicago, and other urban areas have been recorded in the single digits. “People are alive today in King County who would not have survived...

A bill at the South Carolina State House could make places you go a bit safer. The legislation would make learning Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, CPR, and how to use an Automated External Defibrillator, AED, a requirement in order for students to graduate. The training could help in responding to a cardiac arrest. Sen. Gerald Malloy, the bill's sponsor says it could increase a person's chance of survival with more people who are trained. "I think an educated community is always better and I think that...