The most common causes of non-ischemic sudden cardiac death are cardiomyopathy related to obesity, alcoholism, and fibrosis. In patients younger than 35, the most common cause of sudden cardiac death is a fatal arrhythmia, usually in the context of a structurally normal heart.
Coronary artery disease causes most cases (80%) of sudden cardiac death. In people who are younger, congenital (since birth) heart defects or genetic abnormalities in their heart's electrical system are often the cause. In people age 35 and older, the cause is more often related to coronary artery disease.
Indeed, risk factors such as, older age, male sex, cigarette smoking, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, and family history of CHD have all been associated with an increased risk of SCD.
The most common cause of sudden death in young adult death was ischemic heart disease (n = 39, 59%), followed by dissecting aortic aneurysm (n = 7, 10.6%), cardiac valvular disease (n = 5, 7.6%), congenital heart disease (n = 3, 4.5%), cardiac conduction system abnormalities (n = 1, 1.5%), cardiomyopathy (n = 1, 1.5%), ...
So, what does it feel like to die? As these studies record, death by cardiac arrest seems to feel either like nothing, or something pleasant and perhaps slightly mystical. The moments before death were not felt to be painful. We don't know if this would extend to other causes of death, but still, it is reassuring.
A conscious dying person can know if they are on the verge of dying. Some feel immense pain for hours before dying, while others die in seconds. This awareness of approaching death is most pronounced in people with terminal conditions such as cancer.
Much depends on your cause of death and whether you have access to pain medications. For instance, you may die suddenly and experience no pain at all. Often, dying bodies fight to survive. The survival instinct programmed into our bodies can feel painful without medications.
Although the causes of SD in young subjects are scarce, the most prevalent cause of death is related to cardiovascular disease, with primary arrhythmogenic disorders, atherosclerotic events, cardiomyopathies, and myocarditis as the main contributors.
Is cardiac arrest painful? Some people have chest pain before they become unconscious from cardiac arrest. However, you won't feel pain once you lose consciousness.
Indeed, coronary heart disease is the major cause of sudden death. Approximately 50% of cases, sudden death is the first manifestation of coronary artery disease. One of the principal strategies to prevent sudden death is to maintain a healthy lifestyle by eating wisely and exercising regularly.
Physical signs
Facial muscles may relax and the jaw can drop. Skin can become very pale. Breathing can alternate between loud rasping breaths and quiet breathing. Towards the end, dying people will often only breathe periodically, with an intake of breath followed by no breath for several seconds.
Researchers suspect sleep apnea causes abnormal heart rhythms, which lead to sudden cardiac death, for a number of reasons. “Sleep apnea may lower oxygen levels, activate the fight-or-flight response and change pressure in the chest when the upper airway closes, stressing the heart mechanically,” he explains.
In the days before their death, a person's control over their breathing starts to fail. They may breathe more slowly for a while, then more quickly, and so their breathing becomes quite unpredictable overall. Fluid can start to gather in their lungs, and the breathing can begin to sound quite 'rattly'.
All of a sudden you just collapse. If the sudden cardiac arrest is preceded by something else first, say you had a heart attack or you had some type of irregular heartbeat that was sustained, you might feel a fluttering in your chest or you might feel lightheaded or dizzy or pass out.
Normally there is no measurable, meaningful brain activity after the heart stops beating. Within two to 20 seconds the brain “flatlines.” But the man would later tell researchers that he could see an unfamiliar woman beckoning from a corner up in the ceiling.
1. : unexpected death that is instantaneous or occurs within minutes from any cause other than violence. sudden death following coronary occlusion.
This stage is also one of reflection. The dying person often thinks back over their life and revisits old memories.4 They might also be going over the things they regret.
The fear of dying is quite common, and most people feel that death is scary to varying degrees. To what extent that fear occurs and what it pertains to specifically varies from one person to another. While some fear is healthy because it makes us more cautious, some people may also have an unhealthy fear of dying.
Technically, there is no such thing as dying from old age, but it is a term that is often used to generalize someone's death, which may be down to a number of causes and factors.
The first organ system to “close down” is the digestive system. Digestion is a lot of work! In the last few weeks, there is really no need to process food to build new cells. That energy needs to go elsewhere.
"Our data shows that a dying brain can respond to sound, even in an unconscious state, up to the last hours of life." This new insight into the dying brain's response to sound can help family and friends bring comfort to a person in their final moments.
Decomposition begins several minutes after death with a process called autolysis, or self-digestion. Soon after the heart stops beating, cells become deprived of oxygen, and their acidity increases as the toxic by-products of chemical reactions begin to accumulate inside them.
Another major difference: Most people survive heart attacks, with only 10% of patients surviving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Of the approximately 350,000 people affected by the condition each year in the U.S., roughly 17% to 41% of cases occur during the nighttime hours of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.