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Question:
Please help me understand my husband's sudden death.
My husband died of a heart attack age 37. He was in hospital 3 years earlier with what they called a flu on his heart. He was very fit, playing sports and dropped dead while playing. Did he have pain leaving home that night-- in 2 hours he was dead. I have 2 kids ages 17 and 14. Could this happen to them? Should I get them tested, as my husband's father and mine died age 52 and 54 with heart trouble. Please help.
submitted by Anne from Ireland, on 11/11/09
Answer:
by Texas Heart Institute cardiologist, James T. Willerson, MD
Most likely, he had heart injury from the virus that left his heart weak. The medical term for this problem is a cardiomyopathy, i.e., weak heart muscle caused by the viral injury. The weakened heart muscle can develop erratic heart beating that is referred to medically as an arrhythmia. Abnormal heart beating from the bottom part of the heart often causes the output from the heart to fall severely, and sometimes for the heart to have no output at all, and one dies immediately, i.e., sudden cardiac arrest in medical terms. Exercise may promote such arrhythmias, especially in one with a weak heart muscle. I suspect your husband developed such a cardiac arrhythmia, and had a weakened heart from the previous viral injury to the heart, and died suddenly almost certainly without any preceding pain. I am very sorry to hear about your loss.
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Updated November 2009
