austin
10-20-2005, 10:52 PM
Two and a half weeks ago our evening started out quite normal..my son and husband had a typical teen(16)/dad argument over some silly thing; my husband got more upset than I felt he should as he had asthma and got so upset that my son stormed from the house saying he needed to take a drive to cool off. I had only just gotten home and was annoyed at both of them so went to the back of the house to change from work and check e-mails. Not more than 15 minutes later I come out and my husband is laying on the floor, being a big man I was unable to roll him over and freaked when I saw his face was blue and I was unable to get a pulse..I called EMS and then my son , my son beat EMS and we both tried desperately to revive him - my son was frantic that he be able to save his dad as they hadn't made up which they always did. I believe now he was dead immediately since the autopsy report showed he died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy which we were unaware he even had. I can only hope that was the case and he didn't suffer; I truly don't think he did. He was only 54 so when EMS learned that there had been an argument an investigation ensued, the police literally turned my home into a crime scene, ending with taking my son and I downtown at 2am for statements, they had practically accused us of hurting my husband; I share this so you can see the triple whammy inflicted on my son after just losing his dad.
I immediately researched HC and was shocked that it's quite often genetic; my husbands family has lost most of the males to *sudden heart attacks* and because an autopsy was never performed on them they actually may have all had this. I went cold thinking that my athletic son could very well have the same thing happen to him - he will be tested in the next month. In researching this I found that often it's only detected in an actual autopsy? My husband had been to the ER three times in the past 6 weeks and although a cursory EKG was done he was given steriods for breathing problems and had an appt the end of this month with a pulmonary specialist. From what I'm reading in the weeks prior to his death he actually had many of the symptoms such as apnea and sleep apnea, severe breathlessness and chronic fatique. I am so glad an autopsy was done because it may save my sons life and the lives of my brother in laws son. I hope through forums such as this that awareness with the medical community concerning this will be more pronounced.
I immediately researched HC and was shocked that it's quite often genetic; my husbands family has lost most of the males to *sudden heart attacks* and because an autopsy was never performed on them they actually may have all had this. I went cold thinking that my athletic son could very well have the same thing happen to him - he will be tested in the next month. In researching this I found that often it's only detected in an actual autopsy? My husband had been to the ER three times in the past 6 weeks and although a cursory EKG was done he was given steriods for breathing problems and had an appt the end of this month with a pulmonary specialist. From what I'm reading in the weeks prior to his death he actually had many of the symptoms such as apnea and sleep apnea, severe breathlessness and chronic fatique. I am so glad an autopsy was done because it may save my sons life and the lives of my brother in laws son. I hope through forums such as this that awareness with the medical community concerning this will be more pronounced.