I received an e-mail from Cass. He is now home and recovering. The e-mail was sent to a number of folks, not sure how many here on SZ received the e-mail. I won't go into all the details, I believe they are personal and I will leave it to Cass to post if he feels the need to. He has a long recovery ahead.

Cass summed up what happened in one sentence.
"I had what is called ventricular fibrillation - my heart was beating
super fast, but not really getting any blood out to the body."

He's one humble man Cass asked in his e-mail to remember a number of his friends from his church who have bigger health problems than he.

Update scroll to the bottom of this page Cass posted a reply: http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/018229.html

[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 09-28-2008).]

Steve, thank you for the update. It so good to hear that Cass is doing better & is home recuperating nicely.

Wow! It's amazing that he managed to survive ventricular fibrillation--most patients do not unless they are in the hospital when it occurs. The road to recovery will be long and arduous, but I'm sure Cass is up to the task.

Get well soon, Cass,

Gary

Cass,
Glad you are doing better...hope they found what caused it and you won't have any further issues...hope the recovery goes well.
God Bless....

Lee

See, keyboard players are tough!

Glad you're home...one day at a time...no lifting heavy speakers!!!

(Now's the perfect time to convince wife you should get a Bose!)



------------------
Bill in Dayton

WOW.., I hope he's doing well. Man that really touches home. A few years ago I had the same thing happen. My heart-rate out of the blue shot up to 200bpm. When the EMT's arrived and put the monitor on me it popped back at 199 BPM! I almost had to have the needle jammed into my heart to get it to slow down... I was lucky.., by following the EMT's instructions I was able to get it to slow down. Man.., one look at that needle and it's a miracle I didn't flat line on the spot!

I feel for Cass. It can hurt like hell. Your heart is pumping too fast to get blood through your body and it basically is "dry pumping".

The moment it happened it dropped me on my face. I was terrified because I was the only one home with my little girl who was 3 years old at the time. It was an eye opener for me.


[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 09-28-2008).]

Just too add.., if you guys want to know a VERY IMPORTANT thing to do if this ever happens to you.....

If your heart rate jumps like that and you're still concious (hopefully you are).., a way to get your heart rate to slow down is to push down like you're having a BM (but don't actually make a deposit). Pushing down as if you're having a BM will (most of the time), slow your rate. This was what the EMT's had me do and after a few pushes it worked.

[This message has been edited by squeak_D (edited 09-28-2008).]

Hang in there Cass, we're all with you.
My wife , Hilary, was diagnosed after the recent heart attack with atrial fibrilation (AF)which stubbornly stays at 100bpm and has been strongly advised to go on warfarin.
Just wondered if any of you guys know whether they are advising the same in USA.

Hi Eddie, I talked to my wife (a nurse practitioner) about this.
She said the warfarin would be to thin your wife's blood and reduce the risk of blood clots; a very important thing to do with someone with afib. She should also be on drugs to slow the heart rate eg beta blocker. See this web site http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=9
Best wishes
Graham

This is what killed my dad. The heart goes to fluttering, you get no blood flow. What seems odd is how fast it happens. I mean, within seconds, you are OUT.

Good luck, Cass, you've done well to make it through it. You're young enough now to beat it.

[This message has been edited by SemiLiveMusic (edited 09-30-2008).]