Question: My husband had a full cardiac arrest 12/24/15. He is 83 yrs old. We initiated CPR at home until paramedics arrived. He has had a full recovery without any cerebral or physical impairments. He has history of CAD with multiple stents and one heart attack 25 yrs ago. For the past 3 yrs we have followed the Reversal Heart Disease diet from UCLA XXXXXXX Ornish program. His lab prior to arrest were perfect. The arrest as we were told was an electrical problem. On 2/3/16 he had an ICD implant and developed a blood clot on his left arm, it has resolved however continues on Xeralto for 6 months. . His height is 5’11 and weight is 152lbs (3 yrs ago he weighed 175lb). Prior to arrest, he was only on 1 medication now on multiple RX. he lived a very active life, he manages 7 properties, we traveled overseas yearly. He did not have any signs or symptoms on the day of his arrest.
Below are his current medications:
Losartan (COZAAR) 50 mg Oral Tab (Taking)     Take 1 tablet by mouth daily
     Clopidogrel (PLAVIX) 75 mg Oral Tab (Taking)     
     Aspirin (ECOTRIN LOW STRENGTH) 81 mg Oral TBEC DR Tab (Taking)     
     Rivaroxaban (XARELTO) 20 mg Oral Tab (Taking)     
     Nitroglycerin (NITROSTAT/NITROTAB) 0.4 mg SL Subl Tab (Taking) as needed
     Atorvastatin (LIPITOR) 40 mg Oral Tab (Taking)
     Carvedilol (COREG) 25 mg Oral Tab (Taking)
     
After hospital d/c his EFG was @ 10% with some mild feet edema. Since then no edema, now his ejection fraction (EFG )) is 25%, he is in cardiac rehab and is exercising daily (was very active and exercised prior to the incident). My question to you is, does a patient with his history EFG remain the same or may it improve. For some reason his doctors have made us feel this will not get better.

Will this increase is mortality and possibility of another arrest?

What are the probability of him having another arrest? We were told that he is at risk to have another arrest in the next year, is this true? His ICD has been provided from XXXXXXX Scientific, he was givn the pacemaker and the defibrillator model. We are terrified and live in fear every day!!

His wt is stable, BP x3/day avg. 110/60-115/60 this has been his range. His BP was never been an issue. No hx of smoking or other medical conditions. No family hx of heart disease.

I want to make sure I am asking all the correct questions and obtain the best health care for him. I have asked his clinicians what can we do to improve his EFG and they have not really given be a clear answer. Some say it will improve, others say it really does not matter, some say it will improve if he exercises, other say the rx meds he takes will assist him. He suffers no shortness of breath and is feeling good other than the anxiety that he feels (both of us are terrified). We're attending support groups to become educated on how to live with the implant. His ICD has picked up some ventricular tachycardia which lasted less than 4-5 seconds, the ICD did not have to give him a treatment. We were told this is normal. Is this normal?

Labs: His most recent lab work: 5/28/2016
CHOLESTEROL 114 mg/dL
TRIGLYCERIDE 55 mg/dL
HDL 50 mg/dL >=40 mg/dL
LDL CALCULATED 53 mg/dL
CHOLESTEROL/HIGH DENSITY LIPOPROTEIN 2.3
CHOLESTEROL, NON-HDL 64 mg/dL
SODIUM 140 mEq/L 135 - 145 mEq/L
POTASSIUM 3.9 mEq/L 3.5 - 5.0 mEq/L
CHLORIDE 106 mEq/L 101 - 111 mEq/L
CO2 29 mEq/L
CREATININE 1.00 mg/dL <=1.30 mg/dL
GLOMERULAR FILTRATION RATE 86 mL/min/BSA
GLUCOSE, FASTING 99 mg/dL
ALTAST 31 U/L 27 U/L
HGBA1C% 5.8 % ( this has value has been constant for the past 5 yrs.)

Past Medical DX:
ANGINA (Noted 11/18/2004)
CAD OF NATIVE ARTERY (Noted 2/9/2005)
CAD, PRESENCE OF STENT (Noted 5/7/2008)
HTN (Noted 10/17/2007)
HX OF MI (Noted 2/9/2005)
HX OF PERCUTANEOUS TRANSLUMINAL CORONARY ANGIOPLASTY (Noted 9/7/2005)
HYPERLIPIDEMIA (Noted 2/3/2005)
OSTEOARTHRITIS OF BILAT HIPS (Noted 12/31/2013)
OSTEOPENIA (Noted 10/27/2008)
PERIPHERAL VASCULAR DISEASE (Noted 11/5/2003)
PREDIABETES (Noted 11/20/2015)
VENTRICULAR FIBRILLATION (Noted 12/27/2015)

Thank you and I welcome your feedback and assessment. Hopefully I proved you with a good history of his health.

Thank you for your responses and answer to my questions. Can you please elaborate what is resyncronisation therapy and why you feel this would be beneficial to my husband. What does this entail?

How is this resycronisation therapy preformed? I have no concept of the procedure. Are patients admitted to the hospital? Is this done with rx medication or an apparatus?

Thank you for helping understand this procedure, this is valuable information which I can discuss with his physicians.
One more question is this a risky procedure or similar to a heart catherization /stent procedure.
Thank you for your response.