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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Can Pneumonia Cause Sudden Death?

my mom recently died after getting pneumonia in the nursing home where she went for rehab after being in the hospital for chf. she got diabetes when she was 86 after having her gall bladder removed. she also had copd. she went into a fib after the doc treated her for the pneumonia. they also said she had an infection. i think they just let her die as no one will tell me why she was fine, to a point, until she got the pneumonia then went into afib. can you give me some answers. i am devastated by her "unexpected" death. thank you
Tue, 15 Jul 2014
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Internal Medicine Specialist,  's  Response
Thank you for the query.
As per the history, your mother was 86 yrs old, diabetic and suffered from COPD. She had CHF (congestive heart failure), and also developed pneumonia and atrial fibrillation (cardiac arrythmia). She has a number of causes here, which point towards a poor prognosis. Pneumonia in diabetics can be dangerous, as these patients are proned to develop overt sepsis and multi-organ failure (due to poor immune status). Atrial fibrillation (cardiac arrythmia) may have developed due to a number of reasons like her critical illness, COPD status or poor cardiac status (congestive heart failure). The exact cause of her death may be difficult to ascertain, as a number of causes may have been responsible. Pneumonia with diabetes in a background of COPD, may cause sepsis and respiratory failure which may be a cause (cardio-respiratory arrest). Cardiac arrythmia itself can lead to sudden cardiac death. I am sorry for what happened to her, but she had a lot of comorbidities, which may have acted in unison.
Hope this helps you out.
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Can Pneumonia Cause Sudden Death?

Thank you for the query. As per the history, your mother was 86 yrs old, diabetic and suffered from COPD. She had CHF (congestive heart failure), and also developed pneumonia and atrial fibrillation (cardiac arrythmia). She has a number of causes here, which point towards a poor prognosis. Pneumonia in diabetics can be dangerous, as these patients are proned to develop overt sepsis and multi-organ failure (due to poor immune status). Atrial fibrillation (cardiac arrythmia) may have developed due to a number of reasons like her critical illness, COPD status or poor cardiac status (congestive heart failure). The exact cause of her death may be difficult to ascertain, as a number of causes may have been responsible. Pneumonia with diabetes in a background of COPD, may cause sepsis and respiratory failure which may be a cause (cardio-respiratory arrest). Cardiac arrythmia itself can lead to sudden cardiac death. I am sorry for what happened to her, but she had a lot of comorbidities, which may have acted in unison. Hope this helps you out.