http://www.newsweek.com/common-treatment-cardiac-arrest-causes-brain-damage-adrenaline-1038144 > When a patient’s heart stops beating, a shot of adrenaline is a last-resort treatment that doctors use to wake the vital organ back up. It’s a routine procedure in emergency rooms across the country, but new research is now questioning the safety and effectiveness of this common intervention. > Adrenaline increases blood flow to the heart and increases the chance of restoring a heartbeat. However, it also reduces blood flow in the tiny small blood vessels in the brain, which may cause brain damage. In a study published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers in the U.K found that a third of cardiac arrest survivors who received adrenaline ended up in a vegetative state or were unable to walk and care for themselves, compared with 18 percent of survivors who were given a placebo.