Gilbert Gottfried Dies of Heart Condition

By Your Health Magazine

What you should know – and do

We have all known people or known of people who become very ill or passed away from some type of rare disease or unusual condition. Gilbert Gottfried was a well-known comedian who passed away from tachycardia which may have been the result of a rare underlying condition according to his publicist.

There are many examples of people with different types of heart arrhythmias. Ventricular tachycardia has become something we hear about more and more often. Ventricular refers the ventricles or chambers in the heart. The ventricles in the heart are the large chambers that move oxygenated blood from the heart to the body. Tachy means fast or rapid. So, ventricular tachycardia is when your ventricles are beating fast, and in this case, so fast that they really are not doing the job of getting blood to your tissues.

Think of it like filling up a bucket in your sink. You sit there waiting on the bucket to fill up. It takes time and you have to wait. You can empty it quickly but you have to wait for it to fill up. If you empty it quickly, there won’t be much water in the bucket. This is the same when you have ventricular tachycardia.

The oxygenated blood from your lungs comes into the atria of the heart but the ventricles are beating so fast they never have a chance to fill up so they push very little blood to the body. Less and less comes back to the heart to be reoxygenated. It’s a vicious cycle that can wind up in death.

There also seem to be a great variety of causes. Birth defects, injuries and drug use, either prescription, or recreational. I’ve known several people with this condition, caused by different things. Currently, two people I know have this condition, one from a birth defect and one from prescription medication for another problem. I’ve also known one person who died from it at age 35 because she refused to go to the doctor. Very very sad!

It is frightening when anything interferes with the normal functioning of your heart. When someone you know complains of chest pain, or an intermittent feeling that their heart is beating too fast, you need to encourage them, or drag them, to the doctor or emergency room. If you have those symptoms be careful and get someone to take you to the doctor or emergency room.