Tim Russert Death: What Happened That Led To His Deαth, In Detail

Tim Russert’s passing on television on June 13 was terrible news for his loved ones, friends, and followers. Russert, the head of NBC News Washington Bureau and a frequent moderator of “Meet the Press,” was renowned for his willingness to press the issue.

More than two are left: How could a man who always seemed so full of life on-air and off-air pass away so suddenly? And couldn’t the tragedy have been avoided in some way?

Russert suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and passed away as a result.

His left anterior descending coronary artery, a significant blood vessel that carries blood to the heart, experienced a plaque rupture. Plaque, in its simplest form, is a buildup of fat, cholesterol, and other substances on the artery wall, frequently under its lining.

Plaque ruptures cause blood to clot around them because the body perceives them as injuries.

According to Dr. Scott Monrad, head of the cardiac catheterization lab at the Montefiore-Einstein Heart Center in New York City, clotting around burst plaque can be extremely dangerous.

Russert suffered a heart attαck, or the destruction of heart muscle tissue, when a blood clot clogged an artery, cutting off blood flow to his heart. Even worse, the incident messed up the electrical impulses in his heart, causing it to lose rhythm.

15% of all heart attαcks involve this. Impulses might become erratic (ventricular fibrillation) or too rapid (ventricular tachycardia).

For Russert, the latter occurred. Dr. Marianne Legato, a clinical medicine professor at Columbia University in New York City, claims there is “no coordinated pumping” during fibrillation. “Each cell is on its own, and the heart is in a shimmering, jelly-like state.”

Nobody has any idea. A heart attαck may or may not result in sudden cardiac deαth due to sudden cardiac arrest “Russert had bad luck because his heart went into arrhythmia,” Monrad said, “but we don’t know who will, or when.”

His doctors had diagnosed him with asymptomatic coronary artery disease, meaning he had some plaque buildup in his coronary arteries but was otherwise in good health. This is commonplace.

More than half of the men who d!e from coronary artery disease don’t have any symptoms. Legato adds that minor symptoms like breathing difficulties or discomfort in the shoulders, back, or neck may exist but go unnoticed.

Or events that may indicate symptoms don’t happen. One of Legato’s patients never experienced breathing difficulties since she never exercised. (Russert received much.)

The autopsy revealed an enlarged heart; some versions claim Russert had diabetes. There is no evidence that his doctors were aware of this earlier.

According to his internist, Russert had a stress test on April 29 and the findings were “normal.” There are multiple tests, so it’s unclear which one this was.

Remembering Tim Russert who died on this date June 13 in 2008. Photo by Josh Hallett. #OTD pic.twitter.com/doaFfWDDuX

— Dr. Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) June 13, 2023

Standard treadmill tests monitor heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, and electrical activity to assess how well the heart pumps blood during exercise.

These tests can identify plaque-clogged arteries, but only if the blockage is significant enough—typically 70% or more—to be detected.

Accordingly, more minor blockages may occasionally be more harmful than bigger ones because neither of these tests or symptoms will reveal them, according to UCLA clinical professor Dr. Jignesh Patel.

Thallium stress tests use the radioactive element thallium to monitor blood flow to the heart muscle while working out. Sound waves are used in stress echocardiograms to capture moving images of the heart during and after exercise.

Basic echocardiograms, or stress echocardiograms without activity, CT angiograms, which produce detailed images of the coronary arteries, and coronary calcium scoring, which employs CT scanning to assess calcium buildup in the coronary arteries, are some further monitoring procedures.

(These are related to the chance of obstruction.) At least one coronary calcium test was allegedly performed on Russert in 1998. His 210 score indicates “moderate” coronary artery disease.

Resuscitation efforts started right away, and paramedics arrived soon.

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In the ambulance en route to the hospital, they discovered Russert was not breathing and had no pulse, and they conducted three unsuccessful defibrillation attempts. A defibrillator shocks the heart to regain its regular beat during this surgery.

According to Dr. Paul Wang, Stanford University’s chief of cardiac arrhythmia, defibrillation offered the best chance to save his life. But every minute after a cardiac arrest, the likelihood of survival drops by around 10%.

Automated external defibrillators, which are portable and child-friendly, have recently been installed in a variety of public locations. Such defibrillators were used on 14 persons at Chicago’s O’Hare airport in their first ten months, reviving nine.

Overall, these devices have a 50% success rate when cardiac arrests are seen and are easily accessible. But they are unable to do miracles.

“I don’t know if the studio [at NBC] had one,” Patel stated, “but it sounds like it wouldn’t have made that much difference with the type of blockage Russert had.” Legato agrees: “I think he had a pretty horrible event,” she says. “Even if his doctor had been there, I’m not sure at all he could have been saved.”

If Russert had had an implantable defibrillator, according to Wang, which would have monitored his heart rate and rhythm and shocked his heart immediately if it detected arrhythmia, he could have had a chance.

The success rate of the gadgets is greater than 99%. Wang claims that if doctors had been informed of Russert’s enlarged heart, “he might have been a candidate” for one.

Cardiac arrest is distinct from many chronic and crippling medical conditions, according to Wang: After being revived, a person can carry on with their everyday life.

He continues, “We couldn’t make it happen this time,” but he sees Russert’s passing as a chance to increase public awareness. He wanted everyone to be aware of the reality. He wished to improve our nation. And this tragedy could become something extremely significant, saving other families from going through this.