So there's a game I play where you grow virtual plants, and it's nice in that for every virtual plant you harvest it contributes a small amount to the Adopt an Acre program to help the actual environment (they sum up how much has been done each month and make a monthly donation, it's not like they cut a check every time a single garden harvests a virtual plant). Anyhow, there's a text field where you can put a description of your garden, and one of the things I've gotten used to when visiting other gardens (which for games reasons you have motivation to do) is that many people dedicate their virtual garden to a loved one who died. So, I wasn't too surprised to see such a dedication in a garden the other night, although a bit sad as it was for the person's child.
What I found interesting, was that it mentioned that the child had died of S.A.D.S. and asked that people educate themselves to prevent unnecessary deaths. I was curious, as I couldn't think of what S.A.D.S. was. On a side note, when spreading awareness, a bit more of a nudge, like a full acronym expansion is a good idea. My first web search pulled up seasonal affective disorder, which seemed unlikely. However, I'm pretty sure I now know it stands for Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes. That certainly seems the most likely fit.
Looking over information for it, it seems very unlikely anyone reading this actually has need of info about Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes, but I suspect many people reading this might, like me, find random knowledge kind of interesting and I figured it can't hurt to share. On the off chance you or anyone you ever know has the warning signs, it's good to know what they are, because any syndrome that has death in its name is clearly really bad and one to be avoided whenever possible. And apparently medical intervention can help to decrease the risk of the death part.
It's estimated that in over half the cases one of the following two warning signs was present:
A sudden, unexplained death of a family member below the age of forty
Seizures or fainting during exercise
Apparently either of those two things is a good sign that you should talk to a doctor about possible heart arrhythmias. What the web site I could find didn't say was how many people exhibit those symptoms and don't end up dying, because the data was gathered by analyzing the cases where someone died. But still, it certainly seems sensible if you might have a risk to get it checked. Have a
link.
It's so rare that someone tries to spread awareness for an issue that I truly had no awareness about at all. I mean, I had some general knowledge that heart problems existed, but I hadn't heard about this specific category. Although I think I'd have guessed that seizures are a medical problem to look into and even that fainting during exercise isn't a good sign, and that sudden, unexplained deaths are a worrisome thing to have in your family medical history.
Although, apparently they consider you to be living with SADS if you have any of the conditions that can cause sudden death. I think I would prefer to use the actual specific name for the condition if I were in that situation. I don't think it really makes sense to say living with SADS. Not to underscore the difficulty of living with a serious heart problem that must be rather scary to have, but you are ~living~, and I think I'd want to emphasize that if it were me.