A Heart Too Good to Die - A shocking story of Sudden Cardiac Arrest

When sudden cardiac death strikes, you cannot stop it. It takes away nine out of ten victims, and takes them in just minutes. They do not come back. They are gone. But it doesn’t have to be that way. They can survive.

 Chances are that you know someone who has “dropped dead”, and it is very likely they were a victim of sudden cardiac arrest (aka sudden cardiac death). It kills more people than lung cancer, breast cancer and AIDS, combined. Nearly half a million victims suddenly die each year, one every minute or so. This silent killer is not often gruesome, but it is terrifying in its unpredictability.

 There is no cure, and the only treatment is prevention. Vice Presidents, Olympic athletes and teenagers are all members of this exclusive club. And, unlike heart disease, diet and lifestyle are not the culprits.

 Most die before reaching the hospital, and it happens to outwardly healthy people with no known heart problems such as high school kids, college sports stars and professional athletes, as well as thousands of children.

Sometimes there is a warning sign, but often there is not. You would be surprised if your favorite nightly news station reported the cases-over ten times more deaths than car fatalities-nearly one thousand per day in the United States alone. When this “serial killer” strikes, it is usually not gruesome, and yet it is sudden and shocking, so why don't we hear about these tragedies?

Even if we did hear about them more, what could you do? How do you deal with a sudden cardiac arrest? Cardiopulmonary resuscitation will not bring them back, although it may keep them going long enough for the one thing that will save them.

 They need a defibrillator.

To shock them back to life.

 Dick Cheney has one; his cardiologist thinks he is in danger without one. Reggie Lewis and Hank Gathers didn't know they needed one. An external one could have saved Sergei Grinkov on the ice rink. Those that survive are changed forever. Most likely an expensive device, similar to a pacemaker, will be implanted in their chest. The spouses, family and friends will all be impacted. Who helps them? Where do they get the information and support to deal with the changes? The facts are easy to come by, often too plentiful, and yet so uninformative. There are few books that tell the story, or offer to educate and explain without a clinical approach.

 We want to understand what is happening, what will happen next, and how to prepare for the future.

 For the survivors and family, emotions run high. Grief is not far away and yet we need to be prepared for the implant procedure to be performed “in a few days time”, and the subsequent invasive tests. Too often, the advice is preoccupied with prevention, rather than the rehabilitation and recuperation we all need-for the mind as much as the body. Even though the emotions are often buried, they resurface and the questions start all over again. Why did this happen? What does it mean? Will they recover? How do we deal with it?

I had very little information, with even less experience, and even today, it still feels unreal. So I wrote about it.

It is called A Heart Too Good to Die - A shocking story of Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Technically a memoir, but also a love story, this suspenseful, true account of modern day reanimation shares the shock and grief of life's fragility. It also describes, in layman’s terms, the medicine of survival and the miracles required. http://www.heart2good.com

 An enticing and easily read story of a serious medical emergency, this story covers the emotions and issues of sudden cardiac arrest as well as providing relevant factual/clinical details. As narrative nonfiction it describes, in layman’s terms, the medicine of survival and the miracles required, in ten chapters plus back matter.

Foreword by David. A. Rubin, M.D., Clinical Professor of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Available online here: http://www.booklocker.com//p/books/3380.html?s=excerpt