 Sudden cardiac arrest, the silent killer in our midst. I don't want to sound morbid and certainly not at this time of the year when everyone is in such a festive mood. However, there is a silent killer and though it's not limited to men, it's taken out mostly men of African descent. And it has nothing to do with age, physical fitness or even underlying medical condition. Sudden cardiac arrest. While some people may experience symptoms such as racing heartbeat or feeling dizzy, alerting them that a potentially dangerous heart rhythm problem has started. In over half of the cases, it occurs without prior symptoms. In the past few years, a number of prominent Nigerians such as Digitinumbu, Stephen Keshi, Ibedone Iguodalu, Ugochuku Ehiyogu Nigerian born ex-England international footballer to mention a few have succumbed to it and died. Recently in the international arena, the Danish footballer Christian Ericsson suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. Thankfully, he survived due to the prompt attention he received. He's doing well and though banned from playing in Syria are is planning to resume his career. Unfortunately, because of a lack of awareness and education, most people in Nigeria are not so lucky. I can talk from experience because my husband died of sudden cardiac arrest in 2014. He wasn't sick. He was shooting pool when he suddenly went down. No one did anything because no one knew what to do. SCA is not the same as a heart attack. Without sounding too clinical in a heart attack, the heart stops beating. In contrast, sudden cardiac arrest occurs when the electrical system to the heart malfunctions, just like your car, and suddenly becomes irregular and blood is not delivered to the body. In the first few minutes, the greatest concern is that blood flow to the brain will be reduced so drastically that a person will lose consciousness. Death follows unless emergency treatment is begun immediately. So how can we reduce the risk? Though it usually gives no warning, there are certain lifestyle changes you can make to reduce your risk of sudden cardiac arrest. These lifestyle changes include, you quit smoking, lose weight, exercise regularly, follow a low fat diet, managing your underlying health conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol and so on. What should you do if you witness sudden cardiac arrest? Immediately you initiate CPR, that's cardiac pulmonary resuscitation. If done properly, CPR can save a person's life as the procedure keeps blood and oxygen circulating through the body until help arrives. If there is an AED, that's an automated external defibrillator available, the best chance of rescuing that person includes defibrillator with that device. The shorter the time until defibrillation, the greater the chance the person will survive. In the first few minutes, there is actually a 75-90% chance of survival. After that the chances are reduced by 10% for every minute, which means in 10 minutes a person could be dead. If CPR plus defibrillation, or it is CPR plus defibrillation that saves a person, it's far better to do something than to do nothing at all. If you are fearful that your knowledge or abilities aren't 100% complete, remember the difference between you doing something and doing nothing could be somebody's life. The person is already dead or dying, so you can't kill them. You can't do worse. So please do something. I must say that's really moved me. It is, I don't know what to say. I'm emotional, but I do, please, people come and do CPR. Hearing it from that point, I've known it for a while and I know when a husband died, but it's only when you go through the emotions to recall that a person is dead is dead. You had a heart attack and you're like, so what? But when you really look at what could have happened to prevent it, you ask yourself, did the person really need to die? You know that in Nigeria, we don't even have defibrillators, especially in places where we should have them. Even in most hospitals, it's amazing. You just go and check out your local hospital. They do not have defibrillators. So what happens, someone is dying, they don't even try to shut your heart back. But the truth of the matter is that CPR is not part of the medical training. It's done after you become a doctor in Nigeria. So you're saying that some doctors don't even have it? No, it has to be administered only by doctors. So in school, students have been taught. Growing up in school, okay, all through my elementary education days, I don't recall ever being put through that CPR procedure. I don't even know how to do it. It was when what happened with Chris and everything, that I saw how powerful that could go, how important it is in such a situation to save life. So I mean, it's something that has to be... It has to be... I'll give you an example. Come back to each of our awareness and through the school system, through the child system, so who can know how to do it? I'll give you an example. I had this training of my own personal staff. One guy, we were doing CPR training. He was there playing up and down, laughing, da-da-da. Another guy, participating. Two weeks later, the guy that was laughing up and down, his mom had a heart attack. And he didn't know what to do. Right. Wow. The one that was concentrating, his neighbor had a heart attack, and he was able to administer CPR, and he's alive today. Wow. CPR is something that everyone... That's boy, we feel sorry for him. It will feel bad, especially because he could have done something. It could have done something. And we all can do something. That's where education comes in. Training, education, and awareness. Awareness. We also want to find out what has happened. If it was intentional, you wouldn't have been able to do that. There was also a genetic problem. When you look at the causative factors, it's genetic factors. Some people have a higher chance of having history. So, like, when you look at all the people that I mentioned, they're all different. Look at Ericsson for instance. You cannot say he had a sedentary life down. He's a footballer. He must have gone through the highest form of physical training and training. Yes. And then you look at Digitunumbo, who was a sports person. I think that what is clear is that most of the time, when these things happen in Nigeria, people just don't know what to do because they are ill-equipped. They're uninformed, and they lack awareness. They start running around, or worse still, people mill around the person. They're just looking at you, depriving you of the much needed oxygen. And not doing anything. Or, because it happens so suddenly, because one minute you're just going about your business, the next minute you're on the floor. People are taking it on a rest, and they just don't know that they should do something. I give an example. I had a very good friend. He died in the gym. He had a small, small, like, you know, and that was it. By the time he got to the hospital, he said he had a cardiac arrest. Do you know what I cannot understand? I don't understand how. I mean, I know we see it in the movies. They always try to shock your heart back. And that's what the defibrillator is. That's the defibrillator, yes. It's supposed to run electric current to your heart, and charge it, and get it pumping again, because it can. It can. We saw it with Erickson. But in Nigeria, they just look at you. Oh, he's gone. They never try to bring you back. They never try. And I don't know why. Even in Nigerian movies, the same movie. Yeah, the doctor would just come and put that thing. When you watch Hollywood, it was used electric. Yes. And most times, you see them come back. And when you watch Hollywood, it's gone. Yeah, but in Nigeria, as we said last week, I lost my stepfather. He had a cardiac arrest. And I'm very, very sure that if he had gotten to the hospital on time and they had what he did, and he went to a heart clinic, a heart hospital. I think that government needs to put certain policies in place where schools, hospitals, churches, anywhere where people congregate. Where a certain number of people gather. They need to have... I don't think there's any in our airports. I mean, Agenda Hospital has won. They won. I think that first of all, let me appreciate you for having the courage to see this. You know, it's quite sad you lost yours, but I'm sorry. And he didn't have to die because he was 48. He was young. But you are trying to make a meaning to his dead. You should know that we learn from it. So, let's all learn as Nigerians. Let's all just learn to improve ourselves. Let's do something. I think lifestyle is also one of the best safe gas. Yes. We are starting to learn from it. This is the spending time to screen when something like this happens. Oh, where by me this and that. Try to... And in all fairness, you know, her sister owns a very good school in Lagos. And every year, in fact, she's like, when am I doing your CPR? She's trying to come and do your basic life support. You know, she's... Oh, every year, I get her timetable, which is screening of the children and first day training. She doesn't... I know it's because of personal experience, but I also do know that it's the right thing to do. It is the right thing to do. Absolutely. It's the right thing to do. Just shortly before you go, is there a particular reason why the men are more... Prevalent. Yes. Prevalent. Honestly, I don't know. I'm there in mind. I'm not a medical professional. So maybe we need a doctor to come and... It's not just that he's more prevalent with men, but he's more prevalent with African men. And do you know that more people die from sudden cardiac arrest in America than any other disease? Yeah. But we lack awareness. Yes. That's the major killer natural cause of death in the entire world. And we don't know. After the break, Elijah wraps up this conversation, and I'm looking forward to that. So stay tuned.