Archive - Jul 2009

Sonja Crawford, California, MD – 32 at time of event (1999)

Sonja has a beautiful 10 year-old son to remind her of the morning she was declared dead. Her pregnancy had been completely normal, until she went in for the delivery of her second son. She thought it was time, but the OB-GYN thought otherwise. The labor was quite intense, such strong pain and yet she was not dilating. She was told to return the next day. During a bathroom visit to get changed, her water broke, so she stayed in the hospital for overnight observation. Lucky they hadn’t sent her home, because at 3:16 am she suffered a cardiac arrest.

DALLAS — The appropriate placement of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) is critical to optimize their use in public places, according to two studies published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

DALLAS — School-based AED programs have a high rate of survival for students and others on school grounds.

Researchers found that 83 percent of 1,710 U.S. high schools with AED programs that they studied had an established emergency response plan for sudden cardiac arrest. However, only 40 percent practiced and reviewed their plans at least annually with potential school responders.

 Of 36 cases of sudden cardiac arrests at the 1,710 schools:

    * 94 percent received bystander CPR,

    * 83 percent received an AED shock and

     AED devices only work if people who are trained actually use them.  My husband suffered a heart attack while playing basketball at the YMCA in town.  They have an AED device and have people there trained in CPR, but no-one used the device to try to save him.  I have also learned that if they had it would have "significantly improved his chance of survival".   

Portland, OR–Sudden cardiac death. Not something we usually associate with teenagers, but experts say one in 500 teens have a heart condition that can sometimes be fatal.

Bev Heller of Scappoose lost her 17-year-old son David to this silent killer and now she’s raising awareness in an effort to save lives.

David Heller was a basketball star at Central Catholic High School. An inspirational young man full of life until the night before Thanksgiving in 2005.

“We found him the next morning—he had died in his sleep. He died of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy a heart condition,” said Bev Heller. “It’s the most common cause of sudden death in athletes.”

Just last month Quinn Driscoll, a Vancouver 8th grader collapsed and died during track practice from the same undiagnosed heart condition also known as HCM.

Eddie Rinehart, Austin, TX – 39 at time of event (2008)

Eddie had no idea it would be so important. He just decided on a whim to drive to the club and use the treadmill for his morning run. Normally he pounded the neighborhood streets around 5:30am. Not that spring day.

“I was five minutes into the run and I felt really weird. I was light headed. The last memory I have is that I was moving my hand to slow down the treadmill,” Eddie said. “The next memory I have is being wheeled out of the gym on a stretcher with the paramedics at my side.”

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The American Heart Association has pledged $50,000 to fund the work of University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) biomedical engineering undergraduate students who are working to develop a computer program that teaches CPR using hand-held remote controls from the Nintendo® Wii video game console.

Students James McKee, Jack Wimbish, Haisam Islam and Zach Clark began work on the project as seniors at UAB. Along with faculty advisers Greg Walcott, M.D., associate professor of medicine, and Jack Rogers, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical engineering, the team has been developing the Wii CPR technology for the last seven months. Based on an idea initiated by Walcott, the technology is a computer program that can be downloaded on home computers and synched with the wireless technology of the Wii remote to teach users proper CPR technique.

PITTSBURGH–Initially the reports stated that Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest, but what killed him remains a mystery. Days later, television pitchman Billy Mays died of heart disease while asleep.

More than a year ago, NBC news commentator Tim Russert died from a cardiac arrest caused by heart disease.

All three deaths were unexpected in the two 50-year-olds and the 58-year-old Russert.

Celebrity deaths point to the impact of the nation's No. 1 killer: cardiovascular disease. It accounts for 35.3 percent of all deaths in the United States, or more than cancer, accidents and HIV/AIDS combined. In 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 631,636 people died of cardiovascular disease, down from 864,480 in 2005.

While deaths are declining, challenges remain, especially in trying to revive people after cardiac arrest.

Sophia Jaromay, Antioch, CA – 20 at time of event (2008)

Sophia loved her work. She hung out with her work mates, and made good money. Not any more. The happy twenty-year-old was enjoying an impromptu party at a colleague's apartment after work late one evening when everything suddenly changed. Sophia only knows what they’ve told her. And she doesn’t really want to know at all.

“I was completely healthy. I was pretty physically fit. There was nothing wrong with me!” Sophia exclaimed.
“I was sitting on the couch with my friend (Amanda), and I suddenly tried to get up. I fell back down and told everyone that I felt really dizzy,” Sophia explains. “They thought I was probably drunk, and said ‘Oh, okay, whatever...’ and then I fell over and starting shaking.”

Michael Larsen, Seattle, WA – 45 at time of event (2005)

Michael is a pianist. He was once a large pianist — now he’s more careful, and slimmer! In 1999 he suffered a severe heart attack and needed a quadruple bypass. Unfortunately, his heart muscle was damaged and his EF remains very low. At that time ICDs were not implanted as a safety measure like they are now for LVEF <%35. So that brings us to his story.

Working in Seattle on a stage production, Michael had just finished a tiring day and was walking down Pike Place past the market that is a Seattle institution. He was on the cell phone checking in with his producer, apparently telling her that he felt fine, “never felt better before” were his words. Not that Michael can remember the conversation...