Heart Shock Essay

If you put your hand on your upper left side of your chest the first thing you feel is your heart beating. Many people may not fully understand what our heart does, but they know they need it to survive in life. The heart only has one duty, and that is to pump blood throughout our bodies. The heart is just a muscle that plays a huge roll. There is a left and a right side to the heart and both do two different things in order to get the blood through our bodies. Our heart has a superior and inferior vena cava, right and left atrium, a tricuspid valve, right and left ventricle, a pulmonary valve, right and left pulmonary artery, left and right pulmonary vein, a bicuspid valve, and an aorta. Who ever knew our heart was so.. HELP

The heart sits

First, what is shock? “Shock is defined as inadequate tissue perfusion… The inadequacy is defined as an amount of oxygen delivered to the next cell that is less than the amount required for normal metabolism” (book 410). The main different kinds of shock are hypovolemic, distributive, cardiogenic, and obstructive shock. There are three main stages of shock, there is compensated, decompensated, and irreversible. As you can probably figure it goes from better to worse, even though there is nothing good about shock in general (book ch 15).

The different types of shock, as stated before are hypovolemic, distributive, cardiogenic, and obstructive. However, in regards to the cardiovascular system, there is cardiogenic shock. Cardiogenic shock “is caused by ineffective pump function of the heart.” Most of the time a patient goes into cardiogenic shock due to myocardial infarctions. “Typically, when more than 40 percent of the left ventricle has been lost, cumulatively, because of damage from a heart attack, congestive heart failure, infection, or abnormal heart rhythms, the patient is prone to cardiogenic shock” (book 416). Cardiogenic shock is not as common as many of the other types of shock, but most of the time it is fatal if it is not treated in time. “If treated immediately, about half the people who develop the condition survive” (Mayo). Cardiogenic shock has many sign and symptoms some are rapid breathing, severe shortness of breath, sudden, rapid heartbeat (tachycardia), loss of consciousness, weak pulse, sweating, pale skin, cold hands or feet, and urinating less than normal or not at all. There is not much you can do in the field for someone in cardiogenic shock, you would just put them on oxygen and if a paramedic is available they may start them on some IV fluids. Since cardiogenic shock is very dangerous there are ways to try and prevent it. “The best way to prevent