Is cardiac arrest painful?

Notice that I'm NOT talking about a heart attack. Cardiac arrests are generally instantaneous and an entire kettle of fish altogether.

I have witnessed a lot of cardiac arrests as a nurse. The patient usually becomes grey and clammy, not necessarily complaining about chest pain. The heart stops and they collapse. They need intensive CPR and usually defibrillation. Unfortunately if an arrest isnt witnessed and dealt with immediately the majority of patients dont survive.

Cardiac arrest is not aheart attack. Heart attack is a shortage of oxygen to the heart due to blockage which expresses itself in severe crushing chest pain radiating down the left arm and also into the jaw line. the heart doesnt stop working.
Cardiac arrest is where the heart stops completely and has to be rescusitated back to into cardiac rhythm. There is no cardiac output or rhythm during arrest

what the hell are you talking about???

Good question. I think it would not be painful, your dead. However, the events leading to the cardiac arrest could be painful. Since we all eventually die from cardiac arrest (when your heart stops beating) I think it would depends on the events leading up to the cardiac arrest.

No----they usually end up dead. I have had heart attacks, and are painful, congestive heart failure and no pain.

I don't know if it is the heart attack or cardiac arrest or both of them that are painful. I think I was once told that a heart attack is very painful. Actually, I have always thought that a heart attack and cardiac arrest are the same thing.

no, not always, the pain of an arrest (or even a heart attack) is because of a loss of oxygen to the muscles which is carried through the blood. When a person dies in their sleep of an arrest the muscles are normally fully relaxed.

My oldest brother died in his sleep a couple of years ago, he didn't even know that he had heart problems, 10 days later my youngest brother had a heart attack (he survived) all he felt was hot, nausea and difficulty in breathing, there was no pain he just felt like he had a real sudden flu like symptoms.

When my mother was a nurse she had a patient that had a cardiac arrest, he looked at the heart monitor because it was beeping and just sort of passed out, they did a code blue on him and tried to restart his heart but he died. My mom did say that was the weirdest thing she had ever seen, it was like the guy just dropped dead.

Cardiac arrest also known as cardiorespiratory arrest kills more than 90% of its victims before they reach the hospital. Cardiac arrest is often reversible if treated within a few minutes with CPR and an electric shock to the heart. A cardiac arrest is the abrupt cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively during systole.

http://heart.health.ivillage.com/cardiac...

http://www.righthealth.com/Health/heart_...

http://symptoms.wrongdiagnosis.com/cosym...

No.
When a victim suffers a cardiac arrest ,he/she loses consciousness instantly which makes the victim to suffer nothing including pain. Even, those who has successfully resuscitated from the event might not remember anything except few who may remember events that preceded the cardiac arrest(chest pain or palpitation).
In my experience, none of the victims remembered anything during and after the event.
Hope, this helps.

It may be preceded by chest pains.... Those who were successfully resuscitated won't remember it.

CARDIAC ARREST IS A HEART ATTACK!!