Hi, Folks -

My sister had an ascending aortic aneurysm, her doctors said. The only mainstream medical remedy for that was surgery, but it wasn't really advised. She would have probably withstood the surgery but, at her age, recovery from the surgery would have been difficult.

So she opted for "no surgery", knowing full well that without that surgery she might likely come to the end of her living like, as she put it, "an exploding cartoon cat". :) When that day finally came, they found her body on her kitchen floor.

We all had the idea she had succumbed to a ruptured aneurysm. But what they entered as Cause of Death was, "Smoking". (Say what...?)

I'd suppose an argument could be made that her decades of smoking American cigarettes had been an important vector in the formation of the aneurysm in the first place - though I'd have to wonder if the aneurysm was a result of radiation 'treatments' related to her being diagnosed as having breast cancer.

She was also addicted to Diet Coke, which would suggest possibility of adverse effects of long-term aspartame ingestion.

But:

Not aneurysm.

Not radiation.

Not aspartame.

Smoking.

Cui bono? "Everyone but the deceased."

Blessings.

--hobie