12 healthy young people die per week from ‘silent killer’, UK media warn

In Britain, a “silent killer” is striking down at least 12 healthy young people per week from sudden cardiac arrest, The Mirror reported last week.

Hilary Nicholls lost her 20-year-old daughter Clarissa in May to the “silent killer.” The young woman was on a hike in France when she suddenly collapsed and died.

“All of a sudden, Clarissa put out her hands in front of her and said, ‘Oh no.’ [She] obviously had something that she must have felt in her heart,” Hilary told Britain’s Channel 4 News. “She fell back into her friend’s arms. . . . Police said that even if it happened outside a hospital, ‘nothing could have helped her’ as it's such a big explosion that happens in the heart. There was no sign of anything before this so it was such a shock.”

Clarissa had not been diagnosed with a heart problem, and doctors only found that she had a condition two weeks after her death.

Hilary is now campaigning for sports clubs to mandate heart screenings for all athletes.

According to the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young, one in 300 healthy young people may be at risk of being struck down by the “silent killer.” But pathologist Professor Mary Sheppard thinks the number is underreported.

“Of young people under the age of 35, if I had to say how many died suddenly, I would say 20 per week. That would be my estimate from talking to people and families throughout the country who say, ‘Well the case was never referred to you or an expert cardiac opinion.’”

It is unknown if this “silent killer” is the same threat described as Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS).

Medical “experts” and media operatives have been using the term Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) to explain a recent spate of sudden deaths which occur most commonly in people under 40 and usually are due to cardiac arrest. 

“Healthy young people are dying suddenly and unexpectedly from a mysterious syndrome - as doctors seek answers through a new national register,” wrote the Daily Mail in June last year.  

The British Heart Foundation defines SADS as “when someone dies suddenly and unexpectedly from a cardiac arrest, but the cause of the cardiac arrest can’t be found.”

British experts have been mystified for months over an increase in unexplained deaths, which has academics and media operatives searching for answers. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there were 32,000 more deaths than usual between May and December last year against the five-year national average, excluding deaths from COVID-19. Cumulative deaths are highest among the 15–44 age group.

Several hypotheses have been put forward, including UK Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty’s claim that the deaths were caused by a drop in heart medication prescriptions, though no such drop was found. Others tried blaming the deaths on doctors’ strikes, though the British Medical Association refuted this claim as well. In May, The Mirror suggested “climate change” may be a factor because “[h]eat in particular persistently returns during the summer, and given climate change will only continue to pose such a fatal threat.”