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The Fight

dcurt.is

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Re: The Fight

#71

Post by carbocation »

tomhoward wrote: post #70
carbocation wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be a downer, but I suspect that we are decades away from meaningful diagnostics that would get you anywhere close to being able to declare someone in "perfect health". In fact, I will say that we are 20 years away, and we always will be.[1] For someone who believes that "perfect health" is of little meaning in an adaptive evolutionary framework, this isn't a big issue, but it could be disquieting to some. Let'…

Optimal is perhaps a more useful term. I'm more optimistic than you about how soon we might see major advances. The emerging field of epigenetics seems very promising.

I hope I didn't come off as pessimistic in the general case with regard to medical advances! We see important medical advances every year. I was referring to the notion of being able to verify "perfect health".

Re: The Fight

#72

Post by JshWright »

tomhoward wrote: post #66
JshWright wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't accept that this guy really was in perfect health; I guess that depends on why you mean by 'perfect health.' He may very well have been in perfect health by every outward appearance. There are a large number of surprisingly minor things that can make you dead in an instant. A brief primer on electrocardiology... Each heart beat is divided into several phases. An electrical impulse in generated in the two sm…

I guess that depends on why you mean by 'perfect health.' I know :) He may very well have been in perfect health by every outward appearance. Exactly what I'm saying. There are a large number of surprisingly minor things that can make you dead in an instant. Yes, but my contention is that the likelihood of these things happening is influenced by the degree to which your health is "perfect". some random cell in the he…

>But this is exactly what I'm taling about; I'm hoping for a time when medical science has progressed to a point where these issues are very well understood, and seemingly random cardiac arrests like this can be preempted and prevented. I believe it's possible.

This is simply a discussion of semantics, and I feel kind of silly for arguing it in the first place. You're absolutely correct that most of the 'random' sudden cardiac deaths that occur are in fact related to a previously unknown preexisting condition. Wolff-Parkinson-White, congenital long Q-T, and a variety of cardiomyopathies (most of them congenital as well) can easily predispose someone to dropping dead.

Re: The Fight

#73

Post by notlisted »

Heart attacks in young people (under 35) are rarely related to smoking or high cholesterol (unless accompanied by morbid obesitas) and more often undiagnosed heart or congenital issues (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, et al.), related to drug abuse (cocaine, weight loss drugs) and/or eating disorders (bulimia).

Memento mori, carpe diem, but know that your chances of being struck with heart attacks at a young age are very slim. If it runs in your family, get a screening, but other than that, don't worry too much.

Re: The Fight

#74

Post by barbs »

I know the person he's talking about in this article, he's an old friend of mine from primary school, he's only a little bit younger than me. It was a shock to everyone. He was incredibly fit, in the prime of his life and everything.

I'm on the other side of the world from him now, but it was still a bit of a wake-up call. Inspired me to go travelling, something I'd been putting off for ages.

Re: The Fight

#77

Post by JshWright »

JshWright wrote: post #50
jgrahamc wrote: post #20

Some time ago I came across an elderly man in some difficulty lying in the street in London. While waiting for an ambulance he 'died' (no heart beat, no respiration, no signs of life at all, blue lips and gums) and I immediately did CPR on him until the ambulance arrived. Months later I learnt that he survived. Any brush with death makes you seriously think about your own mortality. I know that watching this stranger…

This is a field where a surprising amount of progress is being made. People still tend to assume that CPR is mostly a token effort so bystanders feel like they're doing something. In reality, high quality CPR + rapid access to an AED can give just about any heart a fighting chance at beating again (assuming the underlying problem is transient or easily treatable... if your LAD cardiac artery is 100% occluded and half…

Does editing time out after a while? I'd never noticed that before..

Anyway... s/cardiac artery/coronary artery/

Re: The Fight

#78

Post by swilson7 »

In my final year of university, I worked on a project to build a device that induces therapeutic hypothermia. Following graduation, 3 friends and I decided that there was enough need for this device to pursue the venture full time. We won a few business plan competitions, received funding through a small incubator, and set out to improve the outcomes of cardiac arrest patients.

Two months in to full time work, the four of us were walking back to the office from from lunch when one of my colleagues collapsed of a sudden cardiac arrest. Similar to Dustin's friend, mine was immediately treated with bystander CPR and first responders were on the scene within 5 minutes. Unfortunately however, my friend was not as lucky as Dustin's. He is no longer with us today and it's devastating to think that his life was taken at the age of 24 by a cardiac arrest.

As someone who has been extremely close to this topic for the past year, I can't stress enough the importance of basic understanding. People who seem to be "very healthy" can still be impacted by cardiac arrest. A sudden cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack. Bystander CPR and the use of automatic external defibrillators can have a significant impact.

"SCA kills more Americans than lung cancer, breast cancer and HIV/AIDS combined." [1] So please spend some time understanding the risk factors that contribute to cardiac arrest, take a CPR course, and educate those around you. I really believe that a single individual can have a significant impact in a situation such as this.

[1]http://wwwp.medtronic.com/Newsroom/LinkedItemDetails.do?item...

Re: The Fight

#79

Post by chii »

noonespecial wrote: post #14
_delirium wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the current federal law on the subject: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/search/display.html?terms=... Basically, you are immune from liability unless you either: 1) are a licensed professional acting within the scope of your employment, in which case normal professional liability rules would apply; or 2) do something that a court finds grossly negligent.

Unfortunately, it may cost you quite a bit of time and money to convince said court that what you did was not grossly negligent should someone press the issue.

No one in their right mind would press the issue, lest it causes a chilling effect on bystanders attempting to help someone in need.

Re: The Fight

#80

Post by nikatwork »

andrewflnr wrote: post #75
jgrahamc wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, he clearly lives near me because I saw him the other day. Looked a bit frail.

Actually it wasn't clear at all that you saw him near your house.

Reread the sentence with a different emphasis and a British accent - the meaning was probably "he must live nearby".
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