why does the brain have to die...when it doesn't have to?

A friend of mine brought to my attention that during a heart attact, the doctor pays more attention to the heart over the brain. Why, when the brain runs the heart...or does the heart do the brain..what ever the case. But again, "why does the brain have to die when it doesn't have to?
Answer:
If the heart stops, the blood supply that keeps the brain alive will stop. The brain will die. A heart attack is usually caused by blockage in one of the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle with oxygen. The brain can't do anything about that.

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Because your heart controls blood flow, which is neccessary to live. If they didn't fix your heart and worked instead on your brain, your body would still die, even if they somehow saved your brain.

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The only way a brain will "die" is lack of oxygen, which is carried through the blood, which is is obviously pumped by the heart, so as long as the heart is pumping blood, the brain oughta do just dandy.

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during a heart attack, the heart is the main problem and a very big problem, for your brain. human brains turn into cake batter without constant blood supply.

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Your question is rather confusing, complicated at best. I'll present to you certain medical facts, and I hope you can draw your answers of them. A "heart attack" is a colloquial term for myocardial infarction. It is a series of events that, if left untreated, may cause widespread and permanent damage to the individual heart muscle cells (called myocytes). Simplified, an attack begins with severely restricting blood supply to the heart, ie, when the blood vessels supplying the heart are blocked. A drop in oxygen supply "suffocates" the myocytes (which are interconnected). This stage is called ischemia, and any damage that occur during this stage may be reversed up to a certain extent if blood supply is restored within 20 minutes. Prolonged ischemia (20-40 minutes) causes the death of myocytes. In the hours following this, "necrosis" (dissolution and resorption of dead cells) occurs. The series of events ends with scarring of the heart 72 hours after the first onset of attack. Physiologically speaking, we can't really say that the brain runs the heart, neither can we say that the heart runs the brain. Their function and survival are deeply interdependant. The rhythmicity of the heart is autonomous, meaning that it is self sufficient. A small group of modified cardiac cells (the sino-atrial node) is the "pacemaker". It discharges electric impulses at a constant rate without much interference from other sources when the body is at rest. However, stimulation of the a main nerve (the vagus nerve), whose main 'command center' lies in the brain, temporarily slows down the heart rate (bradycardia). Interestingly enough, the brain is more dependant on the heart for its survival, since the heart is responsible for pumping oxygenated blood to the brain under pressures high enough to overcome resistance and gravity. I don't see how the brain dies, considering the fact that if the patient isn't breathing, doctors immediately provide artificial oxygenation .. either by intubation, bag-mask-valve, or CPR. It is one of the fundamental pillars of emergency medicine.

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The brain doesn't run the heart. It has its own pacemeaker.

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