Her epileptic husband died suddenly at home. B.C. coroners refused an autopsy
CBC
Anastassia Waddell won't ever know exactly what caused her husband's death. Her requests for an autopsy were denied by the B.C. Coroners Service.
Drew Madsen, her husband and partner of 27 years, had a seizure on March 11. After coming out of it, he told her he had a headache and wanted to take a nap. He never woke up.
He died in the early hours of March 12.
"He didn't make any noise," she recalled. "I knew he was gone, and I knew it was too late to do CPR — because you can't CPR your way out of brain death."
Madsen is believed to have died of SUDEP, or sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. There's no known cause for SUDEP, and the body of research is limited, with many labs seeking brain donations from deceased patients in hopes of advancing what is known about it.
Waddell wanted to donate
This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.
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