I did a high angle rescue today of a 50 YO man who dropped dead in a dry creekbed while on a relatively easy hike with his family. We did CPR on this guy while we all carried him up a steep wooded embankment for 200 linear yards with 180' of vertical rise. No time for fancy rope rigs, we just hauled him up with manpower.

The piece of EDC that would have saved this guy's life?
A healthy heart.

He was heavy. Possibly obese. He was in no shape to be on the hike.

His heart gave out. His wife watched him die. Two young boys with them had looked on as he lay there and died and his friends (one an EMT) frantically tried to help while we were on the 20 minute trip it took to get there after they called. That was a long 20 minutes for them. We knew on arrival he was long gone, and his wife, an RN knew for sure when she saw the perfectly flat EKG and no response whatsoever to any interventions.

This is far from my first time dealing with unexpected deaths, but I never like the middle age guy heart attack calls because they are almost always preventable. It's lifestyle, plain and simple, that kills the vast majority of heart disease victims.

Heat disease is everywhere - forget anything else that might kill you by accident. Heart Disease is responsible for a daily slaughter of thousands of people. It's a huge, preventable killer, and unlike much of the other tools, gear, gadgets and gizmos, your heart is a piece of EDC that you can easily maintain.

Be good to your heart. It's hard work, it's worth it.

Those are never fun.

We ha a PM go down in the office Friday. When I went for the pulse, it was too fast to count. EMS was in the building in less than 5 min. (Station is that close).

To give an idea of their rush, there was zero patient prep, and buckles were still flapping at the legs end of the stretcher when they slammed the doors and left.

I understand he made it, but have not heard anything else.

I wish we had an AED, at least it would have been available and being automatic, it could have helped slow/regulate things.

Martin,

Hang tough friend, we don't always get the fun ones.

Amen. I read your fine write up about this experience as I plan for tomorrow's appointment with my cardiothoracic surgeon. For me, it is now finally time to replace my stenotic aortic valve - probably will be sometime in the next month or so.

I have been fortunate. My cardiologist, whom I saw after referral by my really fine primary care physician, predicted this would be coming about three years ago, and his prediction is spot on. At 73, this is my first personal brush with any truly significant surgery. I am doing a lot better that my grandfather (first heart attack at 64 was fatal) or my father ( first of at least three occurred at 58). The family history has been a real incentive to stay in shape, not get tooooo much overweight, and pay attention to my general health.

I have also hauled cardiac victims out of the woods over the years - exactly the same results as yours..

My 67 year old dad is hospitalized right now due to congestive heart failure. Sadly he's also been a 100# overweight for most of my life (I'm 41), essentially put on the weight after he quit smoking. Ironic, huh? Trade one heart killer (cigarettes) for another (obesity). I'm carrying a good 30 lbs more than would be ideal for my age, height and build, and my dad's problems have been a big wake up call for me, too.

Great post Martin. Heart problems are such a concern and in most cases totally preventable. The odds are so much better, almost negligible when within proper weight limits. Now weight is not a determinate of fitness level, I have seen people considered obese finish Ironman triathlons but for the most part obesity is a death sentence to quality and quantity of life.

You rarely see obese people living into their 50's. Seeing children obese as they are today, you realize a generation may live less than the ones previous, thanks to heart conditions brought on by obesity or sedentary lifestyle.

Children should see a model of health as a path to their future. Not the shock of seeing their always obese family member die a painful death in front of everyone on a hike and knowing that it was because they didn't take care of them self.

Yep.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkkjwW8BHe8

Hear, hear. Martin, you're absolutely right.

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/20...esity-epidemic/

Like the folks on the ETS forum, The freakonomics folks enjoy questioning asumptions and conventional wisdom. Their take on the obesity-mortality link:

"Similarly, the idea that obesity is itself a disease or causes disease is based largely on correlations in large epidemiological studies, not on any clear causal link between excess weight and disease. With the exception of a few minor conditions (like osteoarthritis), we don’t have any good evidence that adiposity causes any physical harm. By the same statistical criteria used to call obesity a disease, one could also claim that being male, being overly tall, or even being black is a disease (i.e., all correlate with early mortality and morbidity). The fact that we choose to demonize fatness rather than these other traits illustrates how concerns about obesity are rooted far more in political and cultural standards than scientific ones.

In short, the biggest problem with all the hype about the obesity epidemic is that it assumes that:

A) weight is a good barometer of health (it isn’t);
B) being thin is the same as being healthy (it’s not);
C) anyone can be thin if they want to (which is not true)."

Interesting stuff-reminds of the discussion of the BPA water container scare.

I'm 6'2" and 250lbs. Technically, I'm obese yet my bp is fine and my cholesterol is 'remarkably' low. Nurses words, not mine.

Do I need to lose weight ? Absolutely but I'm not counting down the days to my death either.

That's a comforting story from freakonomics. It's not true.

From the World Health Organisation web site:

'Being overweight or obese can have a serious impact on health. Carrying extra fat leads to serious health consequences such as cardiovascular disease (mainly heart disease and stroke), type 2 diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders like osteoarthritis, and some cancers (endometrial, breast and colon). These conditions cause premature death and substantial disability.'

Just look around, who dies first of people you know?

QJS