Successful Treatment by a Chest Blow of Cardiac Arrest During Myocardial Infarction

The literature on the treatment of cardiac arrest has been dominated by reports of open thoracotomies which often fail to mention whether simpler treatments were tried first. Zoll and others1and Roberts and co-workers,2in contrast, have stressed that a fast chest slap is the first thing to do when the diagnosis of cardiac arrest is made. The following case is presented as a confirmation of the value of that view. Report of a Case A 64-year-old man was brought into Sacred Heart Hospital with a severe chest pain that had begun suddenly 40 minutes before while he was playing golf. He had always been in good health, but in the previous month he had been coughing a little, with production of a small amount of yellow sputum. There had been no fever. He smoked 20 cigarettes a day. The patient, a trim, healthy looking man, was in