BLACK Sabbath legend Ozzy Osbourne has died aged 76 after suffering a cardiac arrest.
The iconic Prince of Darkness, who battled Parkinson’s and heart disease , passed away with his family by his side, according to his death certificate.
Ozzy, who died on July 22, was laid to rest next to the lake in his Buckinghamshire home last Thursday.
His official death certificate lists “acute myocardial infarction” – a type of heart attack – and “out of hospital cardiac arrest” under the cause of death section.
It also listed coronary artery disease – a type of heart disease – and Parkinson’s disease with autonomic dysfunction as “joint causes” of Ozzy’s death.
Cardiac arrests are different from heart attacks .
A heart attack happens when a blood clot blocks one of the heart arteries, cutting off oxygen to the heart muscle.
Cardiac arrest, on the other hand, occurs when the heart’s rhythm malfunctions and it suddenly stops pumping blood.
As Dr Charles Pearman, consultant cardiologist at Manchester University NHS Trust, told Sun Health: “A cardiac arrest is a catch-all term for when the heart stops beating.
“One possible cause for this is an acute myocardial infarction, the medical term for a heart attack which is a sudden blockage or severe narrowing of one of the heart arteries.”
He said that coronary artery disease is the gradual narrowing or hardening of the heart arteries caused by fat and cholesterol build-up.
This is more common in people who smoke or have diabetes , high blood pressure , or high cholesterol .
Dr Pearman added: “One of these narrowings may suddenly crack open, which the body responds to by forming a blood clot over the break in the wall of the artery.
“This clot then completely blocks the artery, causing a heart attack.
“In some unlucky people, shortly after this artery blocks, the heart develops a dangerous abnormal heart rhythm such as ventricular fibrillation, leading to a cardiac arrest.”
Parkinson’s disease, he pointed out, “is a disease affecting the brain and it does not lead to heart attacks or cardiac arrests.”
Cardiac arrests occur when abnormal heart rhythms prevent the heart from pumping blood properly.
One such rhythm is ventricular fibrillation, when the heart quivers instead of pumping.
Around 30,000 people in the UK suffer cardiac arrests outside hospital each year, with more than 90 per cent dying as a result.
According to Dr Kyndaron Reinier of the Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles, who led research into early warning signs: “Warning symptoms hold promise for predicting an imminent sudden cardiac arrest.”
Her study, published in the Lancet, analysed more than 1,500 adults who called emergency services.
She found that around half of cardiac arrest patients experience symptoms in the “hours, days, or weeks before their cardiac arrest”.
Four key warning signs were identified:
1. Shortness of breath
The most common early sign of a cardiac arrest was shortness of breath – known medically as dyspnoea.
Some 41 per cent of cardiac arrest patients suffered the sign before the health emergency, compared to 22 per cent in the control group.
It was the only sign to be significantly linked to cardiac arrests in both men and women, researchers said.
How to respond to cardiac arrest
A cardiac arrest is an emergency.
If you’re with someone who’s having a cardiac arrest, call 999, start CPR and use a defibrillator if there’s one nearby.
Follow instructions from the 999 operator until emergency services take over.
Starting immediate CPR is vital as it keeps blood and oxygen moving to the brain and around the body.
A defibrillator will then deliver a controlled electric shock to try and get the heart beating normally again.
Public access defibrillators are often in places like train stations and shopping centres.
Anyone can use one and you don’t need training to do so.
2. Chest pain
Chest pain was the second most common sign.
It affected around a third of cardiac arrest patients, compared to a quarter of the control group.
However, it was only significantly linked to cardiac arrests in men — not women.
3. Sweating
Diaphoresis — or heavy sweating — also affected cardiac arrest patients in the days before their heart stopped beating.
Around 12 per cent had the symptom, compared to eight per cent in the control group.
It was also only significantly linked in men, not women.
4. Seizures
Finally, “seizure-like activity” was also more common in cardiac patients than the control group.
Eleven per cent had the symptom, compared to seven per cent.
Nausea or vomiting, weakness, dizziness, and abdominal symptoms were all more common in the control group.
“Our findings represent the initial step in the discovery of novel methods to predict imminent sudden cardiac arrest,” researchers said.
“Although warning symptoms can potentially be harnessed, many people have these symptoms on a daily basis,” they added.
“Warning symptoms are common but might need to be supplemented with additional features, such as the clinical profile and biometric measures, for improved prediction of imminent sudden cardiac arrest.”
