What Happens If You Have a Heart Attack In Space?

An anonymous reader sends this story about medical research in zero-gravity environments. Many earth-based treatments need to be adapted for use in space, and anatomical behaviors can change in subtle and unpredictable ways as well. This research aims to protect astronauts and future generations of space-goers from conditions that are easily treatable on the ground. The ultrasound machine the students are testing would be well suited for space missions. It is light and compact, requires very little medical training to use, and the probe can stay in the body for 72 hours at a time. But the technology has only ever been used on Earth, and no one knows whether it would function correctly in zero gravity. The most significant concern is that microgravity will cause the probe to drift out of position. The team's mentor, cardiac surgeon and space medicine specialist Peter Lee, tells me that an ultrasound probe that sits in the esophagus is an ideal diagnostic tool for extended spaceflights. "If an astronaut far from Earth were to have a cardiovascular event, or for some reason became incapacitated and had to be on a ventilator, there's no imaging currently available [in space] that provides continuous images of the heart," he says. "You can use [external] ultrasound, but the technician has to be there the whole time to hold it on the chest."

Comments

Re:huh

[geekoid]

You don't know that.. Going to space may have been what set it off.

Re:huh

[viperidaenz]

Shove them in a big zip-lock bag. Rot contained.
Make it opaque, so no one can see dead rotting guy.

Astronaut James Irwin had a heart attack on moon

[DanDD]

From Wikipedia on James Irwin :

The astronauts' physiological vital signs were being monitored back on Earth, and the Flight surgeons noticed some irregularities in Irwin's heart rhythms.[9] Irwin's heart had developed bigeminy.[10] Dr. Charles Berry stated to Chris Kraft, deputy director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) at the time: "It's serious, [i]f he were on Earth. I'd have him in ICU being treated for a heart attack."[10] Endeavour's cabin atmosphere was 100% oxygen when in space, so it was decided that he was in no serious danger by Dr. Charles Berry.[10] Specifically, "In truth,...he's in an ICU. He's getting one hundred percent oxygen, he's being continuously monitored, and best of all, he's in zero g. Whatever strain his heart is under, well, we can't do better than zero g."

Re:CPR

[istartedi]

I'm guessing that the modification would be to reach around from behind and do compression on the chest instead of below the sternum. In other words, not a Heimlich, but a way to do chest compression in zero-G without the aforementioned difficulty of maintaining stability. That's actually a pretty good idea, although it probably still doesn't solve the EVA problem. I don't think anybody can perform a Heimlich, modified or otherwise, in those bulky suits.