Cardiac arrests are one of the biggest killers of Australians under 50 — ABC News

Cardiac arrests are one of the biggest killers of Australians under 50, and doctors say more research is needed

There were few signs Bryan Maris was unwell before he died in his sleep at the age of 31.

"I climbed in [to bed] beside Bryan and I lay beside him and he wasn't responding, and that's when I realised that something wasn't OK," his wife Jessica Maris said.

Despite her and ambulance workers' efforts to revive him, Mr Maris died.

And six years on from his death, his family still does not know what caused it.

"He was completely healthy," Mrs Maris said.

"He raced A-Grade cycling, he was super fit, super athletic, just a really happy smiley person and wonderful person.".

Mr Maris died from an unexplained sudden cardiac arrest, one of the biggest killers of people under 50 in Australia.

About 20,000 people in Australia suffer from a sudden cardiac arrest each year. Less than 10 per cent survive.

And in about 30 to 40 per cent of cases, doctors cannot explain what caused it, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute researcher and cardiologist Liz Paratz says.

"There's very few other conditions like that, where at the end of extensive investigations we have to come back to the family and say there's no clear reason why this incredibly tragic event has occurred," Dr Paratz said.

"That obviously makes it incredibly difficult with the lack of closure, but also with a lack of knowing who else might be at risk in the family."

A sudden cardiac arrest is when the heart malfunctions and stops beating unexpectedly. It is different to a heart attack, which happens when blood flow to the heart is blocked.

More than 2,000 Australians under the age of 50 die from unexplained cardiac arrests, with little or no warning, each year, the Baker Institute said.

With a new study showing sudden cardiac arrests cost the Australian economy approximately $2 billion in lost productivity each year, doctors say more investment is needed for researching what causes it and how to prevent it.

Investment into cardiac arrest research needed

The study, led by Baker Institute researchers, looked at 4,637 people who suffered sudden cardiac arrests in Victoria between 2017 and 2018.

Of those, just 695 patients — or 15 per cent — survived and made it to hospital. Only 325 patients — or 7 per cent — survived long enough to be discharged from hospital.

By matching that information with data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the researchers used modelling to estimate how many people were working at the time of their sudden cardiac arrest, and what their deaths meant in terms of years of lost productivity.

"The loss in GDP is nearly $100,000 per person; extrapolated to the approximately 20,000 people suffering SCAs across all of Australia each year, the national loss in GDP would approach $2 billion," the study, published in medical journal Resuscitation, said.

The cost was comparable to the productivity losses caused by all types of cancer combined, the researchers said.

Before this study, the economic impact of sudden cardiac arrests had not been thoroughly quantified in Australia or overseas.

"There's a range of things that can cause cardiac arrests, like heart attacks, or heart muscle problems, or genetic disorders, but for many cases … we have no answer at all," Dr Paratz said.

"One of the messages from this paper is that every dollar that we can put into research and determining why people have cardiac arrests, is going to be richly rewarded in preventing losses to the economy and preventing tragedy for Australian families."

Economic cost nothing compared to cost to families

Cardiologist Garry Jennings, the chief medical advisor with the Heart Foundation, which partly funded the study, said the huge economic cost was not surprising, because sudden cardiac deaths affected both younger and older people.

"But the dollar cost is nothing compared to the human cost of the families that are left behind," he said.

For Mrs Maris, the loss of her husband was enormous.

She and her two young children lost an active and hands-on father, who was planning to work part-time and take three months' paternity leave to spend time with his new daughter.

"All of those dreams, everything, our whole future that we envisaged together is gone," she says.

"My loss is enormous, but what hurts the most is the loss for my children, that they don't have Bryan. He would have been such an incredible father to them."

Professor Jennings said many people did not realise how common sudden cardiac deaths were.

And by sharing her story, Mrs Maris hopes she can raise awareness and make a difference.

"Bryan doesn't have a voice, but I can speak for Bryan and say that Bryan's life mattered," Mrs Maris said.

"Having a 31-year-old go to bed and not wake up is not OK, and having 2000 Australians [under 50] this year not wake up is not OK."

— originally published by ABC News, 25 April 2021 (Author: Leonie Thorne and staff)