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Hello my name is Paul and I am a 23 year old nursing student. About 5 years ago my father died a sudden death and the autopsy said the cause of death was HCM. I moved on from his death emotionally but I feel extremely worried recently because I had always thought that since my dad was one of 8 kids and none of his brother and sisters had heart problems that is was probably a gene that was recessive and only occurred once every few generations. Also there are no reports of sudden death in his family. My grandfather (my fathers father) had a few heart attacks but did not die from them and lived to be 96 and his wife 93. My father died at the age of 43. Recently I looked up online that HCM is caused by dominate genes meaning that if you have a parent you have a 50% chance of inheriting it and it can develop at any time. That freaked me out. What even freaks me out more is the details about my fathers death.
My father had been been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a few years before his death. The neurologist said he likely had this all his life as he had symptoms at different times in his life. About a year before he died he also had a heart murmur and was diagnosed with Mitral Valve prolapse as the cause of the murmur. He met with cardiologist one month before he died and had and echo cardiogram. He was not diagnosed with HCM then with the test then died from it a month later.
Now the rest of the family and I are not looking to sue anyone or blame anyone for his death. I just want some piece of mind. The fact that the electrocardiogram did not detect HCM means one of two things. He had it and the test did not reveal that he had it, either because they were not looking for it and were just interested in his Mitral Valve prolapse or something else. Or it means that he did not have any signs on the electrocardiogram a month before he died and had a form of HCM that developed fast enough that in one month it killed him. So my first question is this. Has anyone ever heard of HCM developing that fast? I know that most people on here are not medical professionals but how likely do you think it was that my father did have this all along and the test was just a false negative? I am just terrified that I am going to inherit a form of HCM that might develop over the course of one mouth and kill me in between my annual testing for HCM with no symptoms or signs whatsoever.
Some more things that I am wondering about. My father was not doing any strenuous exercise when he died. He had been swimming some laps at the YMCA I work at as a lifeguard a few times a week but not really fast or for a heavy workout. When he died it was on a car drive home after a family reunion (ironically on fathers day). Fortunately I was driving because he made me since I just had gotten my drivers license and wanted me to practice. It happened about 45 minutes into a 2 hr drive. My dad and I were the only ones in the car and we had an argument about my driving. It wasn't a big one he was just nagging and I was just stubborn. We both were silent a for about 10 minutes after the argument. Then it happened I heard my father make a strange moan and he didn't respond at all when I called him. I pulled over and flagged a car down that was near by right away. They called 911 and we got my Dad out of the car and I started CPR within minutes with a nurse that had pulled over to see what was happening. We were on a back country road and It took at least 15 minutes for the ambulance to get there and shock him. They took him to the hospital and he died a few minutes after I got there. I was under the impression that most of the time HCM gets people who are really working out or something, I still do not know much about HCM.
My father was extermely lethargic due to his MS progressing and had taken a leave of absence from work and was going to be evaluated by a state doctor a week later to see about disability retirement. My father was also on many medications to fight his tiredness caused MS. He would sleep most the day and was a heavy coffee drinker. So I am wondering if these medications may have caused the complications with his HCM that caused his death because he had no symptoms or signs leading up to I that I can think of. I know that HCM is often asymptomatic but could the medications he was on cause his death? I'm just asking because I am having my annual cardiologist appointment soon to run tests and I'm terrified that a test will not catch this soon enough for me. So far I have been negative on all tests they can do but if it developed and progressed to the point were it killed my dad in less then a month then it could do the same for me. Also genetic testing is not an option for me because no one told us when my father died to save any blood samples or whatever they use for testing. I know that not all forms of HCM have been identified yet so the only thing the test could do is confirm that I have a gene mutation for it that is identified or it could find nothing but I still could get it since the gene might not have been identified yet.
I'm sorry for the wall of text but I've been terrified for weeks and I just want some people to talk to that know more then I do about HCM and what I should talk to my cardiologist about. As far as my health I have Asthma attacks occasionally about once or twice a month that happen at random no real trigger but they are not as bad or as often as when I was a kid. I have had moderate depression since before my dad died and have been on an anti-depressant for treating it. I have been fine until recently when I learned about the chance of inheritance being 50%. I have been getting some aches all over my body including my chest which worries me but I talked to my primary care doctor who thinks Its just because I am stressed out about this and nursing school and that it is just because of that. I appreciate any comments, support, or answers to my questions anyone can give me because this is on my mind constantly now.
My father had been been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a few years before his death. The neurologist said he likely had this all his life as he had symptoms at different times in his life. About a year before he died he also had a heart murmur and was diagnosed with Mitral Valve prolapse as the cause of the murmur. He met with cardiologist one month before he died and had and echo cardiogram. He was not diagnosed with HCM then with the test then died from it a month later.
Now the rest of the family and I are not looking to sue anyone or blame anyone for his death. I just want some piece of mind. The fact that the electrocardiogram did not detect HCM means one of two things. He had it and the test did not reveal that he had it, either because they were not looking for it and were just interested in his Mitral Valve prolapse or something else. Or it means that he did not have any signs on the electrocardiogram a month before he died and had a form of HCM that developed fast enough that in one month it killed him. So my first question is this. Has anyone ever heard of HCM developing that fast? I know that most people on here are not medical professionals but how likely do you think it was that my father did have this all along and the test was just a false negative? I am just terrified that I am going to inherit a form of HCM that might develop over the course of one mouth and kill me in between my annual testing for HCM with no symptoms or signs whatsoever.
Some more things that I am wondering about. My father was not doing any strenuous exercise when he died. He had been swimming some laps at the YMCA I work at as a lifeguard a few times a week but not really fast or for a heavy workout. When he died it was on a car drive home after a family reunion (ironically on fathers day). Fortunately I was driving because he made me since I just had gotten my drivers license and wanted me to practice. It happened about 45 minutes into a 2 hr drive. My dad and I were the only ones in the car and we had an argument about my driving. It wasn't a big one he was just nagging and I was just stubborn. We both were silent a for about 10 minutes after the argument. Then it happened I heard my father make a strange moan and he didn't respond at all when I called him. I pulled over and flagged a car down that was near by right away. They called 911 and we got my Dad out of the car and I started CPR within minutes with a nurse that had pulled over to see what was happening. We were on a back country road and It took at least 15 minutes for the ambulance to get there and shock him. They took him to the hospital and he died a few minutes after I got there. I was under the impression that most of the time HCM gets people who are really working out or something, I still do not know much about HCM.
My father was extermely lethargic due to his MS progressing and had taken a leave of absence from work and was going to be evaluated by a state doctor a week later to see about disability retirement. My father was also on many medications to fight his tiredness caused MS. He would sleep most the day and was a heavy coffee drinker. So I am wondering if these medications may have caused the complications with his HCM that caused his death because he had no symptoms or signs leading up to I that I can think of. I know that HCM is often asymptomatic but could the medications he was on cause his death? I'm just asking because I am having my annual cardiologist appointment soon to run tests and I'm terrified that a test will not catch this soon enough for me. So far I have been negative on all tests they can do but if it developed and progressed to the point were it killed my dad in less then a month then it could do the same for me. Also genetic testing is not an option for me because no one told us when my father died to save any blood samples or whatever they use for testing. I know that not all forms of HCM have been identified yet so the only thing the test could do is confirm that I have a gene mutation for it that is identified or it could find nothing but I still could get it since the gene might not have been identified yet.
I'm sorry for the wall of text but I've been terrified for weeks and I just want some people to talk to that know more then I do about HCM and what I should talk to my cardiologist about. As far as my health I have Asthma attacks occasionally about once or twice a month that happen at random no real trigger but they are not as bad or as often as when I was a kid. I have had moderate depression since before my dad died and have been on an anti-depressant for treating it. I have been fine until recently when I learned about the chance of inheritance being 50%. I have been getting some aches all over my body including my chest which worries me but I talked to my primary care doctor who thinks Its just because I am stressed out about this and nursing school and that it is just because of that. I appreciate any comments, support, or answers to my questions anyone can give me because this is on my mind constantly now.
And now you know about your possibility to have HCM and can see an expert in HCM, that is very good news for you! Wish you the best of the best!!
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