"I felt a pop. I'm ready to go now."

[LOL!]

I had a discussion with a physician about aortic aneurysms. Apparently, some older folks will not have them treated as surgery can lead to unpleasant complications including death.

This led to another conversation where someone stated that an elderly relative came into the room and said, "I've felt a pop. I'm ready to go now. Good-bye everyone."

Has this happened to anyone you know including yourself?

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Don't know what you mean by "has this happened to you"? I'm thinking that if it had I wouldn't be writing this; however, if you are asking if anyone has had an aortic aneurysm, the answer to that is yes. Four years ago I found out about mine through Life Line Screening. DW made me go with her to the screening and they discovered mine. They don't make the determination but they note finding "something suspecious". I was lucky that my aneurysm was in a location that they were able to inplant what is called an endovascular stent graft. If the location is not suitable for the stent, then major surgery is required. I know of a number of people that have died from this. If the aneurysm ruptures, you don't have enough time to get to the hospital. You bleed to death.

Last time I looked the whole thing is detailed by googling AAA or Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm. That site will also lead you to the treatments like the stent graft. I have to get a CT scan every year to make sure the stent is still in place and that there is no leakage at the connections. Very interesting and very deadly.

A few years ago I detailed this on a post and pleaded with everyone to get a screening to check for an aortic aneurysm. Remember, there are no symptoms. It just happens and you aren't aware of it.

 

[ERD50]

An Aunt of mine had surgery for an aneurysm many years ago, and they kept on eye on other problem areas. The first surgery went pretty well, but affected her vocal cords, and she talked with a whisper/rasp the rest of her life.

The second surgery went badly (they knew it was complex/risky, and supposedly put it off as long as they could). She suffered for many years from complications of surgery. We will never know, but I suspect that just having an aneurysm and passing quickly would have been a better way to go.

I heard of a distant relative who supposedly had a brain aneurysm when he was in his teens. The way I heard it, he suddenly ran around the house holding his head, screaming "I'm dying!", and then he did.

I know of another relative who just seemed to fall asleep, and it was supposedly an aneurysm - no pain at all that we know of, she just went bye-bye apparently unaware.

I guess it can take all sorts of forms. Whew, that was depressing

-ERD50

 

[LOL!]

I meant: Has anyone you know with an aneurysm announced when it popped, then promptly died? It doesn't seem to be a bad way to go.

 

[skipro3]

My M-I-L was diagnosed with one at age 75. That was 4 years ago. They are 'keeping an eye on it' and had a CT scan last week.

F-I-L's mom had a brain aneurysm when he was 6 years old, mom was 32. Dropped dead in her tracks as if someone pulled the plug.

 

[Buckeye]

An Aunt of mine had surgery for an aneurysm many years ago, and they kept on eye on other problem areas. The first surgery went pretty well, but affected her vocal cords, and she talked with a whisper/rasp the rest of her life.

The second surgery went badly (they knew it was complex/risky, and supposedly put it off as long as they could). She suffered for many years from complications of surgery. We will never know, but I suspect that just having an aneurysm and passing quickly would have been a better way to go.

I heard of a distant relative who supposedly had a brain aneurysm when he was in his teens. The way I heard it, he suddenly ran around the house holding his head, screaming "I'm dying!", and then he did.

I know of another relative who just seemed to fall asleep, and it was supposedly an aneurysm - no pain at all that we know of, she just went bye-bye apparently unaware.

I guess it can take all sorts of forms. Whew, that was depressing

-ERD50

Sounds like it runs in the family.

 

[Nords]

It doesn't seem to be a bad way to go.

Compared to... ?

I think I'd much rather have a small electrical circuit go fzzzzt than to have the plumbing explode.

 

[skipro3]

My M-I-L was diagnosed with one at age 75. That was 4 years ago. They are 'keeping an eye on it' and had a CT scan last week.

F-I-L's mom had a brain aneurysm when he was 6 years old, mom was 32. Dropped dead in her tracks as if someone pulled the plug.

I just asked her and she has two; abdominal aortic 3.7cm and a renal that is 4.7cm.

 

[REWahoo]

I meant: Has anyone you know with an aneurysm announced when it popped, then promptly died?

No, the guy I knew with an aneurysm didn't announce when it 'popped' nor did he die promptly. He lived in a nursing home for 28 years - from age 20 to age 48 - before he finally expired.

 

[W2R]

Compared to... ?

I think I'd much rather have a small electrical circuit go fzzzzt than to have the plumbing explode.

+1 This is such a gruesome topic! I'd rather die peacefully and happily in my sleep, and to have this occur at age 122 (the age of the world's oldest woman ever).

No, I doubt I have ever known anyone who died instantly due to an aneurysm.

 

[ERD50]

Sounds like it runs in the family.

Not really, and I meant to clarify that. Mostly, these were relatives by marriage, or even more distant. They might be more closely related to you, or Kevin Bacon than me! And we all have to go sometime.

Almost zero occurrences of cancer in my family that I know of. Only one, and that was detected at age 85. And many of these people were subjected to all sorts of nasty chemicals on the job.

-ERD50

 

[Alan]

I meant: Has anyone you know with an aneurysm announced when it popped, then promptly died? It doesn't seem to be a bad way to go.

I had a grandmother and an uncle who died just like that.

My grandmother was on the phone to her daughter and said "Ow, that hurts", and was found dead on the floor by the phone.

My uncle woke up, sat up in bed and swung his legs out to sit on the side of the bed. He then told my aunt that he had a pain in his gut and fell backwards onto the bed.

Both of them were in their late 70's.

My Dad was not quite as simple but still not a bad way to go. He had a bad pain in his stomach and pressed his call button. (he lived at home in the same house he'd lived in for 48 years but had had a monitoring system installed a few months earlier). An ambulance took him the hospital where he was diagnosed with an abdominal aneuyrism and it was leaking. My 2 sisters were with him later that evening in his hospital room, and he was chatting then just stopped, grimaced in pain for a moment and died. He was 84. He had turned down the option of surgery an hour earlier, saying that he was ready to go.

 

[Meadbh]

When I was growing up, our next door neighbour, a middle aged woman, died suddenly of a brain aneurysm. Shortly afterwards, her eldest daughter, who was pregnant, died suddenly for the same reason. This can be inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion. The remaining three children were tested, and two of them had similar aneurysms. They both had the aneurysms clipped surgically and did fine.

One person who has had a brain aneurysm burst and survived is Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. Her book, My Stroke of Insight, is excellent.

Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight | Video on TED.com

 

[Coolius]

I had a boss ( a long, long time ago ), who was driving with his wife in a recently bought Mercedes Benz, when he felt pain. He told his wife to take over, stopped the car, she got into the drivers seat, he got into the passenger seat, and she drove home.

When she turned to him after switching off the engine, he was gone. They later found out it was an aneurysm.

 

[Ally]

We have a friend who told her husband that she felt sort of funny and was going to lie down for a bit. When he checked on her, she had died from an aneurysm. She was just 60.

 

[Dawg52]

I have a friend who's mother died after feeling a pop in her chest. She had bypass surgery just a couple of days before.

 

[BigNick]

My Dad died of MRSA, but he was in hospital because the ambulance had arrived "just in time" when he had his aortic aneurysm. We'd all have had better memories of him if they had got there 5 minutes later; watching a strong, if slightly overweight, 81-year-old turn into a pale, anaemic lump of flesh over 3 months is no fun.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

I meant: Has anyone you know with an aneurysm announced when it popped, then promptly died? It doesn't seem to be a bad way to go.

LOL!, I knew what you meant when you said "anybody experience that", but I never have. A co-worker died on his sofa while taking a nap. His wife said he never made a sound, just kind of died in his sleep.

 

[LOL!]

I also meant that the affected person announced the pop.

 

[Nords]

I also meant that the affected person announced the pop.

I've developed an annoying chronic popping sound in my left hip socket, but I don't think that's what you have in mind...

 

[MissMolly]

My 6 year old cousin, the apple of her daddy's eye, was walking with my uncle out to the barn to milk the cows. She dropped to the ground and died instantly from an aneurysm. It was incredibly sad.

 

[Ally]

Omg, not a child! How sad and awful.

 

[VaVet96]

Geesh! My son just popped the top on a soda can behind me. Whew!

 

[Midpack]

Thanks a lot! I'm now deathly afraid of anything that goes pop, on me or anywhere else.

 

[Khan]

Barring accident/epidemic I will die from stroke.
Too bad there's not some way to assure the first stroke will be the last one.