sudden unexpected death syndrome
SyndromeWikipedia
10
MENTIONS
9
EPISODES
9
PODCASTS
Search complete. 10 mentions across 9 episodes found for "sudden unexpected death syndrome".
Nov 3, 2026
Michael P. O'HaraHOST
She offers supportive grief retreats and workshops across Ireland, such as children and spousal and parent loss weekend retreats.
Michael P. O'HaraHOST
You can reach them at griefireland.com. Also today mentioned was sudden adult death syndrome, also known as sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, SADS.
Michael P. O'HaraHOST
This is a sudden unexpected death from cardiac arrest in a seemingly healthy and often young person where a post-mortem examined toxicology screen do not find a clear structural cause such as blocked arteries.
Michael P. O'HaraHOST
Also mentioned today is a wonderful book by Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking, which is an amazing book on grieving and handling shock from that experience.
Greg ButlerHOST
He got it from a series of news stories in the LA Times, which he'd read, about Hmong refugees from Laos who had died suddenly in their sleep.
Greg ButlerHOST
And this phenomena is known, by the way, as Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome.
Greg ButlerHOST
This is a real thing.
Greg ButlerHOST
And actually, I was just listening to another podcast, a history podcast, about the origins of it.
AislingAUDIENCE
the fantastic Dylan Quirk testing in the schools.
Neil PrendevilleHOST
Okay, Dylan Quirk was the lad who died of SADS, wasn't it? Playing hurling.
AislingAUDIENCE
Exactly, yeah.
AislingAUDIENCE
So signed up for it in school.
DKHOST
And medical authorities called the phenomenon Asian Death Syndrome.
DKHOST
The condition afflicted men between the ages of 19 and 57 and was believed to be Sudden Unexplained Death Syndrome or Brigada Syndrome.
DKHOST
So, yeah.
NitaGUEST
So what do you
Jeremy HansonHOST
The doctors gave it a name.
Jeremy HansonHOST
Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome.
Jeremy HansonHOST
N-U-N-D-S.
Jeremy HansonHOST
The name described what happened, but it explained nothing.
Tim KellyGUEST
And so once your immune system is, is destroyed, you'll die of a whole lot of other things, and you won't...
Tim KellyGUEST
And they'll call it something else like SADS.
Tim KellyGUEST
SADS, sudden adult death syndrome.
Tim KellyGUEST
Um, or you have cardiac, you know, you have myocarditis or these things where people develop all types of, uh, cardiovascular problems now, and they'll write it off to something else, uh, so it won't be held accountable.
Tim KellyGUEST
Um, but, um, again, uh, this is something...
Tim KellyGUEST
And so once your immune system is, is destroyed, you'll die of a whole lot of other things, and you won't...
Tim KellyGUEST
And they'll call it something else, like SAD, SADS, sudden adult death syndrome.
Tim KellyGUEST
Um, or you have cardiac, you know, you have myocarditis or these things where people develop all types of, uh, cardiovascular problems now, and they'll write it off to something else, uh, so they won't be held accountable.
Tim KellyGUEST
Um, but, um, again, uh, this is something...
StephenHOST
Yeah
TimHOST
... that it was, like, just, like, a sudden, you know- I think it was called like Sunds, like S-U-N-D or something.
TimHOST
But it was something that was pretty much just sudden death in their s- sleep and, uh, he pretty much, uh, came up with Freddy Krueger out of it.
TimHOST
And of course everybody knows that Krueger was the name of his bully and stuff like that, so-
SydneyHOST
It was this inability to find a cause of death that intrigued Wes Craven so much.
SydneyHOST
Medical authorities have since called the phenomenon Asian Death Syndrome, a variant of Sudden Unexpected Death Syndrome and Brugada syndrome.
SydneyHOST
Now, I've heard that there is this lore in Asian folklore about this demon or this spirit that hunts people in their sleep, so people have connected that to this whole phenomenon as well.
SydneyHOST
Either way, I think it's fucking terrifying.