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If I were a betting man, I'd say that Sleep Apnea is a likely cause of Russert's untimely death. I'd like to know if he suffered from Excessive Daytime Sleepiness, athough with many that suffer from OSA, EDS is not something they complain about.
I've read that he had an enlarged heart, and type 2 diabetes. When I look at him, I see his recessed chin and thick neck. Classic signs of OSA. I wish I knew if he snored, and if he had a High BP which did not respond to meds. The latter group have an 80% chance of having OSA.
I'm wondering why the medical community does not wake up to Sleep Disordered Breathing. With all of the cardovascular issues that Tim had, 4 questions asked by one of his physicians may have saved his life.
Do you snore?
Has anyone witnessed you stop breathing at night, or have gasping awakenings.
Are you too sleepy during the day?
Do you have, or have you ever been treated for high blood pressure.
With 2 yes answers, the chances of OSA are high.
I have been listening to as much of the accounts of Tim Russert's heart problems as I can.
I am 57 and sitting here heartbroken because on April 30, 2007, my husband got up and went to work as he did every day of his life since he was a teenager.
A few hours later, I got a call that he had been taken to the hospital and they were doing chest compressions on him. I rushed to the hospital, 20 miles away, but I never was able to see him alive again. I am devastated and feel I no longer want to live myself.
Three years ago, he knew he wasn't feeling right and sought out help. His doctor sent him to the cardiologists, who diagnosed atrial fibrillation. That was all they did and put him on different medications and warfarin.
He continued to have a-fib on a regular basis.
One day after he had just driven 40 miles to work, he passed out shortly afterwards. His co-worker and I met halfway and got him to the hospital. His cardiologist implanted a pacemaker. We thought he was going to be allright after that.
He continued having a-fib and felt tired and dizzy much of the time. But he kept on working because we needed money to live on and to pay the huge medical bills and insurance premiums.
He was a 6'1", 160 lb. man who did everything he possibly could do to stay healthy. He was very athletic and played sports his whole life. He didn't smoke or drink and watched what he ate. He was so looking forward to the day, soon, when he wouldn't have to work 40 hours a week for the first time in his life. He had so many plans and projects he wanted to do.
We always asked his cardiologist if there was anything he could do to get rid of the a-fib, but mainly he was told he just had to learn to live with it. Whenever he didn't feel well, we'd say, oh, it's the a-fib, and hope it would pass in a few hours. We wanted to know what the cardiologist thought was causing the a-fib, but we never got any answer. My husband had a mitral valve prolapse but no one ever said that had anything to do with his a-fib. (We asked.)
And so he suffered with it and did a lot of research on his own. His plan was to go to the Cleveland Clinic as soon as he didn't have to work full-time anymore and have an ablation or the Maze procedure or whatever they deemed best for him.
His cardiologist never said there was any urgency at all or that my husband's life was in danger.
Only weeks away from being able to go to the Cleveland Clinic, he died.
I believe his death was completely preventable and I believe his cardiologist is responsible for it.
I have been researching as much as I can a-fib and mitral valve prolapse.
I now know about echocardiograms and ejection fractions. We never heard of these before. All my husband ever had done were EKGs and stress tests and blood tests for his INR.
Do you think he was taken care of? Did he have to die?
Would a CRP test on Tim Russert have helped detect the plaque in his arteries?
I had heard of the CRP test a few years ago and insisted my husband's GP do one on him. It came out fine but I don't think he would have had one done if we hadn't asked for it.
In the last few days I have been searching for some kind of explanation in health to what Tim Russert had and what happened. Not until now, a week later have I seen anything of the information here. Yes, the death is certainly a tragedy; however can we help out some people who might be just entering health issues in their lives by sharing with them as quickly as possible the problems that caused Tim's death.
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Various family members have heart problems in my family.
My father was quite healthy - not sick a day in his life. Like that he was dead.
My nephew was quite healthy - caught a flu/cold virus - the virus attacked his heart muscle - cariodomyopathy and a pace maker at age 28.
A stress test and EKG are fine, but it is my sad experience to report that a heart echo and sonogram are better at detecting heart issues. Both are non-evasive and may have saved Mr. Russerts life.
Would have saved Mr. Ritter .......
These are the same tools that would save countless athletes lives from the kids on the play ground to the pros.