June 16th, 2008 8:42 AM Eastern
Are You at Risk for Heart Disease?
by Dr. Manny
The doctor of NBC’s Tim Russert has said that the veteran journailst died at age 58 Friday after plaque ruptured an artery, causing a sudden coronary thrombosis.Russert suffered what is called sudden cardiac death or the unexpected natural death from a cardiac cause which occurs within a short time period, usually less than an hour from the onset of symptoms.
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of both men and women in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 770,000 Americans will have a new coronary attack in 2008, and about 430,000 will have a recurrent attack.
Tags: cardiac death, CDC, coronary attack, coronary thrombosis, heart attack, heart disease, Tim Russert
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The death of Tim Russert and the medical information that has been shared has been particularly interesting to my family. On November 30, 2007 my 25 year old son died unexpectedly from a heart attack. He had passed out at work and I advised him to go to the local fire station and have his blood pressure taken as a precaution. Because his pressure was elevated they recommended that he be transported to a local hospital to be evaluated. He spent about 2 hours in the emergency room. Although he informed them of a family history of heart disease he was released after blood work and EKGs were run.
45 minutes later he had a massive heart attack and died.
It is our opinion that emergency rooms need to be more cautious when young adults come into the emergency rooms for evaluations. Our son ( Jack) was slightly overweight. We can’t help but think if the hospital had been more proactive and performed further testing the outcome may have been different.
The simple diagnosis of syncope is unacceptable.
Sudden Cardiac Arrest can strike at any age. We lost our nine year old son John Wesley to SCA Nov 25 2006, he had no symptoms and was a healthy active child. But there was an underlying problem we just didnt know about. Heart screenings in young children perhaps at sports physicals could detect some of these conditions. CPR training and AED’s placed in schools and public places is another way to possibly prevent another loss to this silent killer. Please visit John Wesley’s website and take the risk assessment for you our your child. http://WWW.REMEMBERJOHNWESLEY.ORG