& # 39; MOANING DEATH & # 39 ;: The man lives with a rare sudden death syndrome

Houston, Texas –

One man said he discovered that he was suffering from a rare genetic disease when his heart stopped twice in a day. One of the times occurred while he was driving to Liberty, Texas.

In March, 54-year-old Karl Wiggins collapsed driving his car with his mother.

"My hands fell off the wheel and my head fell," Wiggins told Eyewitness News.

His mother drove and luckily they did not fall. A passerby called 911 and jumped to help. Wiggins, at that time, was dying.

"I was blue and cold and he started doing me chest compressions," recalls Wiggins.

He was transported by Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where the doctors resuscitated him. But his heart did not stop stopping. Nobody knew why, until doctors examined his results.

"We evaluated his electrocardiogram and we noticed that he owned what we called the Brugada model," said Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, who also referred to it as "sudden death syndrome".

According to medical experts, Brugada syndrome is a rare genetic heart disease that causes cardiac death.

"To a certain extent, there are no telltale signs, but there are some warning signs.If you have a healthy man, what is described as a healthy man in, dizziness, fainting, "says Dr. Mukherjee.

Often people with the disease can be heard moaning in the night and then suddenly dying, hence the nickname "moaning death". Some believe that it is related to spirits and the spiritual world. Some patients have described it as someone sitting on their chest.

"It's interesting that people have mentioned it this way," said Dr. Mukherjee. "I suspect that it is the culture of Southeast Asia, if you like, that plays a small role in this regard."

As for Wiggins, the doctors have installed a special defibrillator.

"It's like having an EMT with a defibrillator really ready to shock you," he said.

Wiggins, who works for United Airlines, is back to his adventures. He is not afraid to drive and is not afraid to die.

"I think if someone put a gun on my head and threatened to kill me, I would say," Shoot your best shot. I'm already dead, "said Wiggins.

Follow Chauncy Glover on Twitter and Facebook.