While waiting for some printing jobs, I had a chat with an elderly man to keep myself ‘busy’. I didn’t expect our conversation to move on to something heartbreaking – his wife recently died. It was a tragic one that happened without any warning. It was already late in the evening and they were in bed sleeping when suddenly there was a loud commotion from their neighbor’s house which jolted his wife and resulted to a sudden cardiac arrest. She was rushed to the hospital but it was too late. I felt pity for the old man because it was so unexpected and all he was left was just the memories of him and his loving wife.

After hearing his sad story, it reminded me of how fragile life is, and how we can never know when our time will come. It’s so alarming to even read about sudden cardiac arrest and how it kills 325,000 people a year or roughly 900 per day. This traitor disease is fatal and comes unexpectedly.

So how do you know if you’re one of those with heart attack risk? St. Jude Medical (www.insidecardiacarrest.com) provides information about sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) with videos featuring an explanation about the anatomy of the human heart and about the disease itself. The website is full of valuable information not only on the treatment of SCA but also its risk factors and warning signs. It would be enlightening to know more about SCA from the website particularly if one thinks he is at risk.