Edit: sorry I was getting technical. Yes it absolutely has a role in cardiac arrest and it's used for this the world over.
It would be very detrimental in a patient with a heart attack without arrest though due to increasing cardiac demand when cardiac supply is already highly limited
I don't think it's the first tool from the toolbox, but I'm pretty sure epinephrine has use here.
I don't know if it's true but I am sure I also once read that lidocaine can cause a heart attack but if having one can help stop the heart attack.
Lidocaine is a sodium channel blocker, it controls arrhythmias by blocking or diminishing the disorganized electrical activity going on in heart while hopefully not squelching whatever remaining dominant organized pacemaker activity there is. It is not the only antiarrhythmic though and relatively not a common one even for VF, it is not generally first line in its class. It's role in life support is a complicated subject but it is an optional drug for use in in-hospital CPR (ACLS) for VT/VF. High quality CPR and defibrillation are far more important though.
This is actually quite reasonable, especially if it’s paired with an existing defibrillator. Epinephrine is part of the advanced, cardiac life support algorithm, but it’s just not used in a pen format, since ACLS is typically performed in the hospital setting.
https://cpr.heart.org/-/media/CPR-Images/CPR-Guidelines-Imag...
Edit:
Recently, in the news, there was a discussion of using ECMO in the setting of patients who would require CPR. Take a look at this article for more: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/27/magazine/what-to-know-ecp...
Heart attacks are due to blockage of blood flow to the heart. That can cause the heart to stop (cardiac arrest) but not always.