What actually happens when an eldery person “dies in their sleep”?
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Paramedic here.
Becoming unresponsive is a late sign in many disease processes. When we don’t feel well, we often go lay down and sleep it off. The story we always get is “X decided to sleep in today and isn’t waking up now.” Most of the time, we’d get the calls mid to late morning.
What may have started off as a nap may progress to becoming truly unresponsive and then they just never wake up because whatever made them go unresponsive finally did them in.
Usually it’s cardiac related. Every engine goes out eventually. Cardiac stress often manifests as low energy and weakness. Prime candidates for a nap, right?
When we respond to Dead on Arrivals (DOA), the coroner usually rules them as a presumed cardiac cause of death barring any significant medical history (end stage copd, cancer, other chronic terminal disease processes).
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