Drowning and sudden cardiac death

Abstract

Sudden cardiac death describes the unexpected natural death from a cardiac cause within a short time period, generally, ≤1 hour from the onset of symptoms, in a person without any prior condition that would appear fatal.1,2 Such a rapid death is often attributed to a cardiac arrhythmia, but with the advent of monitoring capabilities from implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), it is now well recognized that classifications based on clinical circumstances can be misleading and often impossible, because 40% of sudden deaths can be unwitnessed.