In the video: "Good night father": saying goodbye to Jonathan Gefen (Yotam Ronen)
At the end of a pathological examination, it emerged that the poet and songwriter Yonatan Gefen passed away after suffering a heart attack related to the atherosclerosis he suffered from.
This was announced this morning (Thursday) by his son, the singer Aviv Gefen.
This is the first official announcement from the family about the cause of Geffen's death, who died a few weeks ago at the age of 76 - after a wave of rumors arose on the subject.
Last week, Nurit Gefen, his ex-wife, referred to them in the podcast "Baut Zaim" which she presents together with her good friend Dalia Gutman.
"We don't know when he died, they took the body to Abu Kabir because he fell and got hit. I was worried that he lay there for hours and suffered, but the doctor Dr. Shlomo Segev told me that he either had a cardiac arrest and then he died straight away and if he also had a stroke , then they already lose consciousness a little and he did not suffer.
I think he didn't suffer when he was on the floor."
What is atherosclerosis?
Arteriosclerosis is a disease of blood vessels that is one of the causes of morbidity and death in the western world, where the chance of arteriosclerosis increases over the age of 45 in men and over the age of 55 in women.
In this disease, a plaque is formed of certain substances, mostly fats, which accumulates on the walls of the arteries throughout the body and is especially dangerous when it appears in the arteries of the heart and brain.
The accumulation of fats causes the wall of blood vessels to thicken and as a result causes narrowing or blockage of arteries in the body.
Arteriosclerosis can cause a lack of blood supply (ischemia) or a decisive blockage of the artery - a condition that requires immediate medical intervention.
It is usually a generalized disease that in most cases occurs in a gradual and prolonged process that takes place in large and medium arteries in the body.
The large arteries that are affected by atherosclerosis are the aorta, blood vessels that supply blood to the brain and coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart itself.
As a result of the continuous narrowing, a complete blockage of the same blood vessel can appear suddenly without early symptoms.
This obstruction in the way results from the sudden appearance of a blood clot on the sclerotic process which can cause a myocardial infarction or a frontal stroke as a result of a deficiency in the blood supply to the brain.
Yonatan Gefen (Photo: Flash 90, Tomer Neuberg)
What are the symptoms?
The main symptom of the blockage is - intense pain which in most cases results from poor blood supply to the heart muscle.
Risk Factors
The main and common risk factors are: active or passive smoking, obesity, a family history of vascular and heart diseases, unbalanced and untreated diabetes, hypertension and an abnormal level of blood lipids.
Family history is one of the central factors in the development of atherosclerosis and is considered a particularly high risk factor when a first-degree relative - mother, father, brother, sister - had a heart attack or stroke at the age of less than 55 for men and less than 65 for women.
How can you prevent the development of arteriosclerosis?
We can talk about two levels of prevention: first level - changing lifestyles, losing weight, exercising, balanced diet, balancing diabetes, stopping smoking, etc. All of these can reduce the development of arteriosclerosis.
b. Second level - in collaboration with the attending physician including drug treatment for hypertension to lower blood lipids and balance diabetes
The author is Dr. Yossi Danieli, expert in cardiology and pediatrics, Maccabi Health Services
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Jonathan Geffen
Atherosclerosis
Cardiac Arrest
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