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
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.
Any info on PVCs? I’m always told they are nothing to worry about. Have fluttering twice a week or so.