有关张雪峰“心源性猝死”的一些错误医学认知(汉英双语)

不管张雪峰的观点是什么，他41岁英年早逝还是令人不胜唏嘘。

No matter what people think of Zhang Xuefeng’s views, his death at just 41 is deeply tragic.

2018年4月27日，张雪峰在微博上发文说，“如果有一天，让我选择一种死法，我最希望的，是猝死。如果让我定个时间，我希望是，不久的将来。”

Back on April 27, 2018, he posted on Weibo: “If there ever comes a day when I have to choose how I die, I hope it will be sudden death. And if I could pick the timing, I hope it would be sometime in the near future.”

虽然我不是直接的医生，但作为医疗机构的从业者，经常要和医学知识打交道，对医学常识还是了解一些，发现非专业人士的普通国人医学知识真的太少了，以至于有关张雪峰去世的病因很多媒体都表达错误，甚至包括张雪峰自己的公司。

I’m not a doctor, but I work in healthcare and deal with medical information every day. From that experience, I know a bit about basic medical concepts, and what’s striking is just how limited the general public’s understanding of medical knowledge can be. Because of this, many reports on Zhang Xuefeng’s cause of death have been inaccurate, even those from his own company.

按理，张雪峰的公司在发布讣告前肯定会字斟句酌，但其公司发布的讣告中称，“亲爱的张雪峰老师，因心源性猝死全力抢救无效，于2026年3月24日15时50分在苏州逝世。”

You would expect his company to have been very careful with every word in their obituary. Yet their statement read: “Our beloved Zhang Xuefeng passed away in Suzhou at 3:50 p.m. on March 24, 2026, after unsuccessful resuscitation following sudden cardiac death.”

而其他的媒体，包括有重要影响力的媒体，也是如此报道的。当然，这主要是因为各大媒体是引用张雪峰公司发布的讣告而发布的新闻。

Other media outlets, including some with significant influence, repeated the same wording, mostly because they were quoting the company’s announcement.

心源性猝死中的“心源”是指“心脏原因引起”，“猝死”是指突然死亡，也就是说“心源性猝死”本身就是死亡结果了，而不是抢救无效病逝的原因。已经死亡了，何来“抢救无效”一说呢。

The issue is with the term “sudden cardiac death.” The word “cardiac” indicates a heart-related cause, and “sudden death” already describes an unexpected death. In other words, sudden cardiac death is itself the outcome—it is already a death. It doesn’t make sense to follow it with “unsuccessful resuscitation.” If someone has already died, what exactly is there left to “resuscitate”?

心源性猝死是指由心脏原因引起的突然自然死亡，通常在症状出现后1小时内发生。其本质是一种死亡方式，多由致命性心律失常（如室颤、室速）引起，导致心脏无法有效泵血，大脑迅速缺氧而死亡。常见基础病包括冠心病、心肌梗死、心肌病等，也可能发生在此前无明显症状的人群中。发作时往往表现为突然倒地、意识丧失、呼吸停止。若不能在几分钟内进行心肺复苏和除颤，死亡几乎不可避免。

Medically, sudden cardiac death refers to a natural death caused by heart-related factors, usually occurring within an hour of symptom onset. It is essentially a way of describing how death happens, most often triggered by fatal heart rhythm disturbances such as ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia. These arrhythmias prevent the heart from pumping effectively, causing the brain to lose oxygen rapidly, which leads to death. Common underlying conditions include coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, and cardiomyopathy, although it can also occur in people who previously showed no symptoms. Sudden cardiac death typically presents as a sudden collapse, loss of consciousness, and cessation of breathing. Without immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation within minutes, death is almost inevitable.

所以在讣告中最好用上位概念，把“因心源性猝死”改成“因突发心脏疾病”。

For this reason, in an obituary it is more accurate to use a broader term. Instead of saying “due to sudden cardiac death,” it would be better to say “due to a sudden cardiac event” or “due to acute heart disease.”