My dad, age 76, collapsed at the gym while working out. His trainer performed hands-only CPR on him for 8 minutes before the paramedics arrived. After a few shocks, the paramedics got his heart going again. He spent 3 days in a medically induced coma with reduced body temperature. From there, he spent another 10 day in the hospital and 60 days recovering.
As mentioned in the article, it's extremely rare for people to survive cardiac arrest. My dad is alive for two reasons:
1. Hands-only CPR. It works, and it's dead simple. handsonlycpr.org
2. He was extremely healthy before the incident. He may have been 76, but he also worked out and climbed mountains. Exercising and eating right not only prevents cardiac problems, they also improve your recovery. His body was in a condition to repair itself better than most individuals his age. Being healthy is not just about prevention.
My grandfather had a stroke in his late 70s. He was mowing another elderly lady's lawn (something he did for cash on the side given he was retired) and had a stroke. He fell down behind the mower and was down for 30 minutes before the lady noticed something odd about the fact that the lawnmower engine hadn't moved from one side of the house in that time.
He never fully recovered. He regained some mobility of the paralysed side, but never enough to walk despite our efforts to make him get up and use a rail to walk down the corridor. He could at least help my grandmother with his assisted transfers from bed to wheelchair, which was good considering she was almost as old as well. He was not able to talk properly, but he could communicate well enough. As someone who'd been tending to an avery of hundreds of birds and doing manual labour on his acres of property prior to that, it was the single worst torture for him to be paralysed like that.
He remained incredibly mentally sharp. He'd come to family birthdays and would be sitting at the end of the table with some of hte family around and he'd spot something across the room that no one else saw - a grandchild stealing a sweet from the table or whatnot. He'd struggle to communicate it to us but sure enough his eagle eyes and sharp attention had noticed it.
It was with no doubt that his incredible physical health was what made him even survive. He lived for some 5-8 years after that. It was a terrible life and he felt incredibly depressed and helpless given his previous circumstance, but he was alive and we gave him the best quality of life we could.
In summary, I guess what I'm trying to say via example is that you cannot possibly underestimate the ability for a healthy body to endure trauma that a less healthy body will just give up under. Especailly as you age, your physical health will help you in ways you can never imagine. Don't neglect it.
Oh, and CPR is a phenomenal tool. Being able to provide first aid is one of those things that you hope will never pay off, but when it does it will literally save a life.
I had a biphasic schedule about 8 years ago for 9 months. I slept at night from 1:30am to 6:00am and in the afternoon from 3:00pm to 4:30pm. I was never tired. I felt like I had two days in one. It was great. I worked from 7am - 2pm, ate lunch, and went back to sleep. When I woke up at 4:30pm, I had 9 hours of free time until I would sleep next.
I don't have a flexible work schedule like that anymore, and now that I live in San Francisco, the environment is not exactly quiet enough at 3pm for quality sleep.
I recommend trying it out if you have the flexibility. Avoid caffeine. Treat the afternoon sleep time, the same as you would the night time. Block out noise and light. Be consistent. Having two days in one is pretty awesome.
As mentioned in the article, it's extremely rare for people to survive cardiac arrest. My dad is alive for two reasons:
1. Hands-only CPR. It works, and it's dead simple. handsonlycpr.org
2. He was extremely healthy before the incident. He may have been 76, but he also worked out and climbed mountains. Exercising and eating right not only prevents cardiac problems, they also improve your recovery. His body was in a condition to repair itself better than most individuals his age. Being healthy is not just about prevention.