How often do otherwise healthy people die suddenly?

[handsomeharry]

@LSLGuy

Only once. Nobody’s done it twice yet.

[Atamasama]

@Sattua

SIDS never completely goes away, just because people stop being infants. Some doctors want to call it SADS: Sudden Adult Death Syndrome or else SUDS: Sudden Unexpected Death Syndrome. It’s hard to pin down the numbers, because there are so many subtle problems that can cause a person to die unexpectedly, but it seems they’re very small. Here’s the wiki entry on it, which focuses on the occurrence in Asian populations, but it happens to all populations. A quick Google search will find plenty of articles about it in the UK, US, etc.

I want to be able to say that someone died of the sads.

[TheBori]

@nearwildheaven

Do you have Marfan’s syndrome?

Nope, I did ask though… The doc said it is a protein thing. Genetic, uncle, his son and an aunt all on my fathers side. The aneurysm (a general increase in diameter of the aorta, not the bubble that most folks think of) was discovered through a echo-cardiogram for a murmur. Apparently I also have a bicuspid aortic valve. The doc tightened it up, but didn’t feel the need to replace it.

[Horatio_Hellpop]

I would consider someone with no serious disease (as in a virus or pathogen), but who has a congenital defect (weak heart valve, brain aneurism, something of that nature) to be “healthy” and people in that situation die from it often.