Do you know? Open the door┋​ Heartbroken! 17-year-old talented athlete Zhang Zhijie passed away, please remember the 4 major signs of sudden death

Experts in this article: Liu Jiang, chief physician, national health science popularization expert, member of the National Health Commission's Capacity Building and Continuing Education Oncology Committee, director of the Oncology Department of the People's Hospital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, member of the Science Popularization Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, chairman of the Health Science Popularization Professional Committee of the Xinjiang Medical Association, and chief science communication expert of the autonomous region.

On July 1, a sad news came. On June 30, at the 2024 Asian Youth Badminton Championships, 17-year-old Chinese player Zhang Zhijie suffered an accident during the game. In the match against the Japanese player, when the first game was tied at 11, Zhang Zhijie suddenly fell to the ground when his opponent was about to serve, and his body convulsed. He was sent to the hospital and died after failed rescue.

Sudden death, as the name suggests, is a natural and unexpected sudden death, which is divided into several categories including cardiac, pulmonary, and brain-related. Cardiogenic sudden death accounts for as much as 80%.

The cardiovascular diseases that cause sudden death mainly include coronary heart disease, cardiomyopathy, myocarditis, valvular heart disease, arrhythmia, etc. Coronary heart disease is the main cause in the middle-aged and elderly, while cardiomyopathy or primary electrocardiopathy is the main cause in young people.

It is particularly noteworthy that sudden death is becoming younger, and heart attacks in young people may be more dangerous than those in the elderly.

Plaques in young people are more unstable

Vascular plaques are more likely to fall off, and the onset is rapid and the symptoms are severe, so the sudden death rate is higher.

For most young people, acute myocardial infarction is the first onset and is not easily noticed.

Before sudden death, don't ignore the body's 4 distress signals

Data shows that about 80% of sudden deaths are sudden cardiac deaths, which occur very suddenly. There are many tutorials online to teach people how to identify the precursors of sudden death, but not all patients have symptoms before sudden death occurs.

About half of patients with cardiac arrest will experience abnormal symptoms in the days or hours before sudden death.

0 1Intermittent chest pain

Abnormal chest pain, feeling of being squeezed repeatedly, and a sense of impending death and fear. These pains may occur suddenly or frequently, and last for a long time.

02Palpitations, fainting, and breathlessness

A few weeks or 1-2 months before sudden death, patients will experience discomfort symptoms such as rapid heartbeat and palpitations; some patients will also experience fainting, shortness of breath, and inability to breathe. These symptoms are related to insufficient blood supply to the brain due to vascular occlusion and stenosis.

03 High body temperature

For patients who already suffer from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, abnormal fever symptoms may be a sign of large-area embolism or bleeding.

04 Atypical symptoms <br /> In addition to the above symptoms, patients with sudden death may also experience some atypical symptoms, such as toothache, abdominal pain, back pain, upper limb pain, etc. Seize the golden 4 minutes of treatment time

"If the blood supply from the heart is interrupted for 3-5 seconds, people will experience blackouts and fainting. If it is interrupted for 6-10 seconds, they will lose consciousness. If it exceeds 5 minutes, the brain tissue will be permanently damaged, and if it exceeds 8 minutes, brain death will occur."

For cardiac arrest, effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation within the first 4 minutes is crucial to saving lives. This is the most critical "golden 4 minutes" to save lives. Moreover, the earlier the rescue begins, the higher the success rate of resuscitation and the fewer sequelae. For every 1 minute of delay, the success rate of rescue decreases by 10%.

If someone suddenly falls to the ground, loses consciousness, stops breathing, or gasps for air, you should call 120 immediately, briefly explain the situation and location, then let the patient lie on his back on a hard surface, keep his head, neck, and trunk straight and untwisted, and immediately perform external chest compressions. The specific method is: kneel on one side of the patient, overlap your hands, place the center of the base of your palms on the midpoint of the line connecting the two nipples in the center of the patient's chest, and press down vertically and quickly with force at a frequency of 100-120 times per minute. If the place you are in is equipped with an automatic external defibrillator (AED), you can use the AED immediately after external chest compressions and follow the voice prompts to increase the success rate of rescue.

We should develop good living habits

According to research, most of the young and middle-aged people who died suddenly had problems such as irregular work and rest schedules, long hours of overtime, high work and life pressure, bad living habits such as smoking and drinking, and overweight. In this regard, it is recommended that such people should develop good living habits, have regular physical examinations, and pay attention to whether blood pressure, blood lipids, blood sugar and other indicators are normal.