Quote from: BedrockBrendan;971786Wouldn't mind getting Butcher's thoughts either.

I think shortly after exercise the chance of a heart attack increases. In health class I was always told 80% of this we can control with diet and exercise but 20% is genetics (who knows where that number comes from though). But being active on its own isn't full immunity. You can be thin, fit and eat in a manner that isn't good for your heart. I know people who are in great physical shape but regularly eat greasy food and roast beef sandwiches. From what I've heard, though, he lived a healthy lifestyle in general.

Also, some people eat vegetarian, vegan, paleo, low-carb or other "healthy" diets that aren't very well-balanced, leaving out essential nutrients.

From what I remember, survival rate is about half for a "heart attack".

Your odds are better if you have an infarction as the rest of the heart keeps working; it give you more time to respond. If he went into ventricular fibrillation (which can be secondary to an infarction), then you need to be right on that if the patient is going to have a chance.

When someone just "drops dead", it's usually from v-fib.

This is, of course, ignoring a host of other things.

Heh. Stewart sent me my first rejection letter. I wrote an adventure and sent it in to WW magazine. He liked it, but just had an adventure with a similar monster. He invited me to write something else and send it in.

Never did.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;971784I am no expert but are you sure you are not thinking of cardiac arrest and not myocardial infarction (heart attack) because I believe the survival rate for that is not so bad (whereas the former is very, very low).

Could be. I'm not a doctor, and only an armchair statistician.

Sad. I met the guy once, for an hour, back in 1993. The company I was working for, Emprise Game Systems, was sold to White Wolf and J.T. and I drove across the country to Georgia. J.T. got a job with Wieck while I moved on to Florida. Stewart showed us the White Wolf offices and warehouse. He even loaned me $100 for bus fare. Nice guy, I liked him. I'm the same age and am jealous he had the career I dreamed of as a teenager in the '80s: game designer and writer, company owner, major influence in the game industry, etc. You just never know when your time will come. R.I.P Stewart Wieck.

People keel over and drop dead all of a sudden for a number of reasons, many of which have nothing to do with coronary artery disease. In fact most people whose heart stops ticking outside the hospital do not have a clogged coronary.

Some usual suspects include non-ischemic arrhythmia-inducing heart disease like valvular heart disease, cardiomyopathies, congenital heart disease and aberrant electrical conductivity pathways (Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome). Non-cardiac problems such as pulmonary embolism and cerebral aneurysms are also common causes of non-cardiac sudden death.

Nevertheless, fatal acute myocardial infarction at 49 is unusual but certainly not unheard of, and genetics may indeed play a large role. If you're over 40 and regularly engaging in exercise, or even younger but have a preexisting heart condition or a family history of early-onset heart disease or sudden death, you should be seeing a primary care physician regularly and discussing the necessity for heart health screening: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Heart-Health-Screenings_UCM_428687_Article.jsp

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;971786I think shortly after exercise the chance of a heart attack increases. In health class I was always told 80% of this we can control with diet and exercise but 20% is genetics (who knows where that number comes from though).

I'd read some articles recently that suggest more current studies have shown that it's almost the exact opposite of this: genetics matters way more than people have been giving credit to.

Anyways, it is ironic: so many gamers have died - I won't say "young" but at an earlier age than average for death rates- because of illness that could be attributed to lifestyle issues, bad diet & exercise habits, etc. And here was Wieck doing everything "right" by all accounts, and he died anyways. It was probably due to some kind of undetected heart defect.  Anyways, it just goes to show that no man can know the hour; and you're just better off living a life of following your passions without concern for something as stupid as longevity.

When I recently renewed my first aid they said with an AED the survival rate from heart attacks rises to 80 percent.

If you go into v-fib, an AED can shock your heart back into an appropriate (sinus) rhythm. It is a marvelous tool.

However, if you use one, don't yell "SHAZAM!" when you discharge it. People don't like that.

Quote from: Baron Opal;972326If you go into v-fib, an AED can shock your heart back into an appropriate (sinus) rhythm. It is a marvelous tool.

However, if you use one, don't yell "SHAZAM!" when you discharge it. People don't like that.

But what if you're Billy Batson and someone needs aid from Captain Marvel?