Posted on 11/15/2019 7:49:01 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The stories make headlines and strike fear in the hearts of runners who read them. Athletes—often young and seemingly healthy—die suddenly at races, during training runs, or in the off hours between them.
Often, the cause is sudden cardiac arrest, which occurs when the heart stops beating. It’s a short-circuit in the electrical impulses that govern your heartbeat. That’s different from a heart attack, typically caused by a blood clot physically blocking blood flow through an artery, though the two can be linked.
According to the latest American Heart Association statistics, sudden cardiac arrest isn’t common among runners—about 0.54 per 100,000 participants in half marathons and marathons experienced it. But it’s often deadly, killing 70 percent of those runners. That’s slightly better than the 90 percent overall mortality rate for people who experience sudden cardiac arrest outside a hospital.
Because so many people don’t live to talk about it, doctors can’t exactly say how often they have symptoms beforehand, said Matthew Martinez, M.D., a cardiologist at the Lehigh Valley Health Network and chair of the American College of Cardiology’s sports and exercise cardiology section. A recent research review published in CMAJ, however, suggests about 29 percent of those who died had some signs.
Those who survived can shed even more light on what occurred in the days and weeks beforehand—as well as what life is like on the other side. Here, five of their stories.
(Excerpt) Read more at runnersworld.com ...
But when you “die”, what is needed is a portable defibrillator. Sometimes a sharp hit on the chest will restart the heart if no defibrillator is present.
Here in the Philippines, sudden cardiac death in young men, usually when they sleep but not always, is alas common. The problem is Ventricular fibrillation. Two of my husband's relatives and the cook's son all died this way suddenly.
taking beta blockers sometimes help, depending on the etiology, and I suspect that if you survive, an implantable defibrillator might be life saving.
some cases are heart attacks from clogged arteries (or spasm especially in those taking cocaine, meth, cigarettes, or viagra). Other cases are congenital problems with the conduction system, i.e. the wiring of the heart (sometimes this is why young athletes drop dead). Still others are from various forms of cardiomyopathy (I believe Breitbart had a form of this, complicated from high blood pressure).
One of my patients, post cardiac surgery, was prone to V Fib and had one implanted. I once asked him if it worked, and he said yes: He had been cutting wood a few days before and it went off and he almost cut his foot off.
(no, he wasn't supposed to be doing heavy work, but hey, he was a farmer and you can't slow them down).
the article mentions the implantable defibrillator at the end.
Defibrillator is quite common now and often just a function added to a typical pacemaker instead of a separate device like the old days
Docs usually requires sustained VF or V tach....
It’s impossible to predict
Some folks have one or two episodes and for some it’s sorta chronic but short duration
Frequency and sustained. Or not are the benchmarks for defibrillator or not
I have had one incident V tach....seven seconds
No warning ..just almost fainted ....
Came back covered in sweat ..
My pacemaker was near my phone and I alerted via my pacemaker app Vanderbilt heart arrhythmia unit on monitoring cal and they said yep we just got the alert about 30 seconds before you sent the notice to MyHealth at vandy which is a 24/7 thing for this
Rythym doc saw me in three days..
I have a dual sides pacing pacemaker but no defibrillator
History of major congenital cardiac HIS bundle issues and a malformed as in pinched in two places where it goes intraseptal totally bridged LAD
Anyhow....experimental retrograde CTO PCI in Chicago and subsequent 3.5 inch LAD STENT changed my life
Three tiny tiny wire entry points groin and wrist with extensive use of collateral arteries to get behind blockage ..Gods arteries
If they can breach blockage even thirty year old blockage they can stent it...if they can breach it without killing you that is....it’s risky...they drill manually the wire by wrist not machine but have unusual wires for that purpose ...it’s complicated
My EF went from a walking dead nitro popping 21 to 62 in about a year
Which is I can tell anyone an amazing feeling opening up over half my left ventricle muscle likely gone dormant but not dead since the late 80s or early 90s
It’s not perfect I’ve still got some but much much less blue meat you’d see on a thallium test and wall thickening and lung scarring from two open hearts 18 years ago but it’s really incredible
My rhythm doc who’s now my focal cardio guy really.....surmises that V tach
Incident could be from a plethora of nodal signals popping up from long asleep ventricle muscle spontaneously sending confusing beat triggers back to the atrial
It’s just a guess he said cause he’s never seen someone with such EF recovery
But if it continues and doesn’t kill me or goes 20 seconds I’ll get a defibrillator pacemaker
With all our remedies we now have diagnostics for arrhythmia predictions haven’t progressed like determining cardiac structural issues has
And treatment is still more or less metoprolol first and then if that’s ineffective more intense arrhythmia dope
Just sharing
Anyone you know a candidate for a CTO PCI encourage them if they are willing to risk it..
It’s more dangerous than a usual CABG procedure but it’s a cath lab procedure
Best hospitals are in Seattle and Chicago and New York....all have highest volume docs there with experience in this quasi experimental surgery...or procedure
Hospitals don’t like it cause there’s no money in it not like CABG
Vandy sent me to Chicago
And Vandy is no slouch joint cardiac care wise
It’s surpassed venerable St Thomas here in Nashville in my vast experience
Just sharing
Heart Attack!
Had a couple,,,
“Ask Jim fixx how smart running is”
You’re right! Much smarter to lay on the couch all day while smoking cigarettes.
The money quote:
“Cooper concluded that Fixx was genetically predisposed - his father died of a heart attack at 43 after a previous one at 35, and Fixx himself had a congenitally enlarged heart - and had an unhealthy life: Fixx was a heavy smoker before beginning running at age 36, had a stressful occupation, had undergone a second divorce, and his weight before he took up running had ballooned to 214 pounds (97 kg).[6] Medical opinion continues to uphold the link between moderate exercise and longevity.[7]”
Thanks. Your input is entirely consistent with the five case studies in this article. I think all five were treated with an AED very shortly after collapsing. In one case, somebody had to run to a nearby location to get an AED.
Why do you think v-fib is so common there? It seems a-fib is more common in the US.
I recently wore a Zio patch for two full weeks and did a cardio stress test. Everything was good. It’s amazing how good the long-duration monitors have gotten. The Zio patch was reviewed in one of the articles I linked and had high ratings.
Looks like a home AED costs about $1,500. May be worth it.
Any info on PVCs? I’m always told they are nothing to worry about. Have fluttering twice a week or so.
“Absolute total bliss beyond words. Love so strong you feel like you will melt.
The worst part was coming back and remembering the experience. I not only have no fear of death, but a feeling of wanting to die so I can go back to it.”
I have never come close to the feeling of peace I had during my cardiac arrest. No pain, no worries, no stress at all. I was in a very dark place and there were.....something, or somebodies floating on the edges of the space. I don’t know who or what they were, but they somehow seemed to contribute to the feelings I had. In retrospect they may have been welcoming me. I miss it. I too have no fear of death. I sometimes feel like I missed an opportunity. I came back when the legs of the stretcher didn’t drop like they’re supposed to and the medics basically dropped the stretcher. The jolt brought me back.
OT but slightly related
Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice dropped dead of a heart attack walking his dog. Age 66.
He was the Satanic minion that imposed gay marriage and unrestricted abortion on Iowa.
The darkness is a layer between here and Heaven that souls must cross to enter Heaven. Many people speak of a tunnel with a bright light at the other end.
The tunnel is the pathway through the darkness. The Light is shining from Heaven as a beacon to guide souls to cross over.
In order for you to feel the bliss, Heaven was shining on you. There are also scary mis-shapen beings in the darkness. A soul that is not Heaven focused experiences fear rather than bliss and the weight of the fear prohibits crossing over. They become stuck here.
The perfect Love of Heaven casts out fear and allows a good soul to cross over.
In your situation, it was not your time yet. You agreed to help someone else or yourself to grow further spiritually so your job here was not complete.
One unusual note. People who crossed over and returned can “feel” the warmth of the bliss when they meet someone else who had the experience. Close your eyes now and you should feel the warmth in your chest.
I was traveling in Italy July of last year when a young woman died in front of me. We were sitting in a castle courtyard having a glass of wine far away from any medical facility.
I brought her back three times. The first two times she returned, her heart was racing and there was a hypoxia type rapid breathing. I recognized this as an attribute of a valve stuck open in her heart. It was pumping rapidly but moving no blood.
The third time she returned to her body she was at total peace and glowing. I carried her back to her room where some friends watched her to make sure she was ok. She could not speak the rest of the evening, but wore a huge smile.
The next morning at breakfast she told me that she was over her body watching me work on her. She felt me pull her back into her body.
“The next morning at breakfast she told me that she was over her body watching me work on her. She felt me pull her back into her body.”
Super hero medics performed CPR on me for 11 minutes and shocked me twice. Up until they dropped the stretcher I was not in this world. I did not have an “out of body” experience. I was gone.
Only about 15% to 18% of resuscitated heart attack patients remember an out of body experience according to medical research.
One problem: The various drugs used have side effects, and don't cut the incidence of sudden death very much.(you have fewer episodes but the death rate isn't lower).LINK.
a good summary can be found here:link,,
I suspect in the future, implantable pacemaker with defrillator will be used more often.... right now it's usually used in people with advanced heart disease. And they are expensive.
link They are implanting them more and more: A relative, age 82, is getting one next month.
But remember, I haven't practiced in the USA for ten years so I might be behind in the latest news./
Thank you so much.
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