ventricular fibrillation questions

[jenmom]

My little brother just died at 20yrs old and while we don't have the autopsy report back the death certificate says Ventricular Fibrillation as cause of death.

First I'm questioning the COD because what I've read so far says he shouldn't have felt a thing and should have just fainted or passed out, but he was moaning on the floor before he passed out. Could this follow VF?

Second, I'm trying to find how much risk his VF might mean for the rest of us siblings. Myself I've been diagnosed with irregular heartbeat, but the monitor I wore for a day didn't catch the fluttering I had occasionally.

Third, I want to reduce my risk of VF and other heart problems and I don't know where to even start looking. My family has cancer not heart disease so this is very new to me and quite scary at the moment.

Thank you.

[Crezelda]

owch... does anyone have any statistics how common it it to just... keel over like this?

[Pamz]

I am so sorry for your lost.  I know how painful it is because I too lost my 22 year old brother 12 1/2 years ago due to an arrhythmia problem that they've never determined the actual problem.  In March of last year, my 23 year old son suffered the same problem but survived thanks to the quick response of his neighbor.  As with my brother, they've never determined a cause of his cardiac sudden death (this is what the drs called it).  He was in ventricular fibrillation for a time and it took 2 shocks to get his heart rate down enough that it was actually working.  They kept him in a coma for several days and then brought him out warning us that he probably suffered brain damage, we just wouldn't know the severity until he was fully awake.  Awake again, he proved he had no brain damage and then they put a pacemaker/defibrillator in him.  He's back to normal now.

He doesn't remember anything, no pain, nothing.  When his neighbor got to him, he wasn't breathing and when he got him breathing was when his heart went in to v-fib so that's not his diagnosis.  He was running hard so his heart rate was probably beating very fast and then just quit before it started and went into an erratic rhythm.  He had his hands over his heart so he may have felt it begin racing.  He did begin kicking his legs and moaning while his heart was racing and continued to fight like that until the er sedated him.

I am relieved to now know that my brother probably didn't suffer either.  He commented that he was dizzy and his heart felt like it was racing and then he passed out and his heart just quit.  The guys he was working with thought he may have received a little electrical shock but not enough to kill him and he had no burns.  They revived him 3 times but didn't have a defibrillator.  If they did, he'd probably be alive today.  The drs told my parents that the brain shut down so quickly that he didn't feel anything past the racing heart.

According to my son's drs, even though they didn't figure out what caused this, that it is genetic and that each and every one of us need to get an ekg and go from their to determine if anyone else has any problems.  Nothing has showed up on us.

Once again, I am so sorry for your loss.  Please do look into some heart tests.

[jenmom]

Thank you all for all the responses! It's nice to have a place to start and there seems to be a sea of info out there but sorting out can be a bit daunting. Thank you!

It's also very comforting to know that he may not have felt much pain.

[jondsam]

Sorry to hear about your loss.  The heart is like any other machine, it breaks down, its runs good, and then sometimes it just quits.  Sometimes there is nothing you can do to prevent crazy events like this from happening.  Sure you can eat great, take omega pills, have great blood pressure, but still die from sudden cardiac death.  It happened to my uncle one night he died while watching tv on the couch.  He had no known medical problems.  Its scary but its part of life.  If you go into VFib you will not feel anything, blood will not be pumping throughout the body which will result in almost immediate brain death and organ loss.

[kevk]

Sorry to hear about your loss
I have had sustained V-Tach, It was not very painful for me but I was very dizzy and a little sick in my stomach. I have only been able to stay awake for about twenty seconds while in V-Tach with my condition.  V-Tach Can lead to V-fib very quickly in some people.

I can only repeat what the others have said, 30 day event monitor is a great place to start.

Knowledge is power and protection.

[soldy]

I am sorry about tragic end your young brother.If you worry about VT and conditions you are describing you should have on standby cheap wrist type blood pressure unit.Every time when you experience dizziness,nausea,breathing difficulties,cold hands and rest of symptoms,check your blood pressure, and .heart rate,Keep detail record  about your activities,food,beverages ,environment,and so on.Analysis will give rough idea what is causing itDo it as long as you can

[Jerry_NJ]

Here's a list of what I was talking about in my last post.

http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Heart/Coronary-Artery-Disease---Risk-factors---Are-you-at-Risk/show/417?cid=78

[Jerry_NJ]

One thing easy to do is practice health heat habits, and take aspirin if your stomach can take it.  Most people can take aspirin with food and not have stomach problems.  All that "stuff" you hear/read about aspirin is true and you don't need a prescription or insurance to afford it.

I will not try ot list all the healthy heart points, if you don't already know them do a web scan on :healthy heart diet".. and similar and see what you find.

The all include no smoking, exercise, low fat, low total cholesterol all top the list, other popular are Omega 3 (fish oil liquid or capsules)... just a stream of thing I think about and do, or try to do.  

Very sorry to read about your loss, so take care of yourself and family.  

[nervouslady]

I am so sorry to hear about your loss.  I cannot imagine how awful that must be.  I have short runs of VT - I've never passed out or anything from them, just feel palpitations that are very unsettling.  From what I understand about sustained VT, people feel dizzy, maybe even chest pain and eventually lose consciousness.  Maybe he felt some chest pain before passing out, and that's why he moaned?

I'd suggest to you and your family that you wear an event monitor for longer than a day.  I wore one for 30 days, which was long enough to catch a couple events of NSVT.   That would give you a better chance of catching the arrhythmia so the docs can see exactly what it is.  I told my doc that mine are infrequent and he automatically ordered a 30 day monitor.

Sorry again for your loss.  

Hope this helps some.