Heart Failure or Heart
Attack - Enron CEO Ken Lay Could Have Died from Either Condition -
Stress is Known Risk Factor - Defibrillators
July 6th 2006
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Portable Heart
Defibrillator |
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Doctors are not
sure whether the extra stress killed Enron CEO Ken Lay. He has been
under a lot of stress the past year after his conviction of defrauding
investors and employees by repeatedly lying about Enron's finances. He
was looking at a long prison sentence.
He was already
being treated for heart disease, but according to Joy Victory, Bharathi
Radhakrishnan and the ABC News Medical Unit, he was not viewed as an
imminent risk for heart attack. Back in the mid 1990’s he was
prescribed a cholesterol-lowering statin drug. Around five years ago,
his coronary disease had progressed to a point where his doctors decided
to put in at least one stent. This is a wire mesh device that was
placed in one of his arteries to try to prevent a future heart attack,
according to Victory.
A source said he
had what was described as stable coronary disease. The Houston ABC
affiliate said he was concerned about his condition, so much so, that he
put portable heart defibrillators, which can be used to restart the
heart, in his houses and on his airplane.
Lay could have
suffered from what is known as the “broken heart syndrome”. Sudden
cardiac death increases after general calamities, like earthquakes and
the loss of a loved one.
Doctors believe
that if Lay had a previous heart attack, it would have placed him at a
higher risk for another one. Some doctors speculate that he could have
died from heart failure and not a heart attack.
Heart attacks are
caused by blockages in the arteries that supply blood to the heart.
This usually occurs from fat clogging the arteries. Heart failure
occurs from a disruption of the heart’s electrical rhythm.
Jeannie Kever in
the Houston Chronicle reported that Type A personalities who are
accustomed to being in control can become stressed-out when not in
control. Most criminal defendants resist the loss of control, and Lay
was unlikely to be different.
John O’Neill,
director of the professionals in crisis program at the Menninger Clinic,
told the Chronicle, “"Anytime you feel like you don't have control over
what's going on, it can lead to more stress. It's hard to feel safe if
you're trying to figure out what's going to happen tomorrow, when you
know something is going to happen."
Dan Wilson
Freelance Writer
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