Wow, those are quite some tragic events to happen to everyone involved. My condolences.At this stage I guess you will have to wait for the autopsy.My first guess would be a large pulmonary embolism (immobilized in the ICU).A primary cardiac cause seems unlikely. A respiratory or airway cause (suffocation or serious bleeding in the upper airway) I'm not so sure about either, because it wouldn't have such an extremely acute onset and your friend would typically run over in case she was suffocating for instance. A very serious and sudden arterial bleeding (ruptured aortic aneurysm) doesn't make sense either considering her age and history.A major intracranial (subarachnoid) hemorrhage is a second possibility.Again, pure speculation. You would have to wait for the autopsy report.
My best friend died suddenly, and Im trying to figure out what happenedIm sorry if this isnt an appropriate question for this sub - if you have any other relevant sub recommendations, please let me know.29 year old white female, 58/315lbs, frequent drinker, non smoker, no medications other then OTCs, no known health problems.On December 13, my best friend (we work together) went to her sisters company Christmas party. Towards the end of the night, they got into a fight, which continued until they got home (they lived together). During this fight a shard of glass or mirror punctured her trachea (still dont know the truth as to how this happened, but thats a different story).They had her in the ICU for two days. While in the ER, her lungs stopped working and they put her on a ventilator while in the ICU. Her kidneys started to act up, so they kept her for a full week. I visited her and gave her a care package, we walked around the ward a bit, and she was in pretty good spirits although she got winded easily. Externally, it looked like her injury was healing well.On December 23, she came back to work for a half day. She had subcutaneous emphysema and was retaining water weight for some reason. We took a walk and she got very lightheaded at one point. She was supposed to leave at 2, but she got lightheaded again and said she was going to wait a few minutes before driving, I gave her some water and pretzels. About 10 minutes later, I heard strange gurgling noises coming from her desk (we sat across from each other with a divider in between) so I ran over. She was bent over her desk shaking and barely breathing, her pupils were dilated and she was unresponsive. She also lost bladder control at one point. She fell out of her chair as I was calling 911, and when on the ground she was only breathing 1-2 breaths per minute (agonal breathing?), her face and tongue turned blue and then grey, and she was clenching her jaw. I stayed on the phone with 911 while two of my coworkers started chest compressions. Once the paramedics arrived, they took over, started manually breathing for her, and hooked up an AED (I think), and the first time they stopped CPR she flatlined and wasnt in a shockable rhythm. It took them forever to find a vein that worked, but they finally got one and gave her epinephrine 3 times that I noticed along with sodium bicarbonate. They also intubated her. I dont know if this is standard, it seemed strange to me, but they worked on her for over an hour, maybe even an hour and a half - every time they stopped compressions she would flatline, but after the first time her heart was in a shockable rhythm so they shocked her several times. They were unable to resuscitate her, and told us that she died of kidney and respiratory failure.If any additional information is required, Ill do my best - not sure if I covered everything. I requested a copy of the autopsy report from the county ME but they said the case was referred to a justice of the peace, so I have to contact her directly (and if theres an active investigation she may not release the report). If anyone has any ideas as to what happened here, I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.