Thank you Drs. John and Scott Zimmer for sharing the story of Tom’s last moments and helping us understand what happened from a medical perspective.

–

Tom Zimmer passed away from a sudden cardiac death after suffering a heart attack while mountain biking with his brother and best friend, John Zimmer. Tom had a blockage of the major blood vessel that feeds the heart, likely from a ruptured plaque.

We all develop plaques throughout the blood vessels to our heart as we age as a result of deposition of cholesterol, and it is unclear which of these plaques will rupture with catastrophic circumstances despite significant research by the medical community. This fateful clot rupture blocked the major source of blood to Tom’s heart thus starving the heart of oxygen and causing a massive heart attack. People who are less healthy and fit than Tom often have very diseased and narrowed blood vessels and as a result their body increases flow and creates collateral vessels to bypass these narrowed sections. As an elite endurance athlete with a cardiovascular capacity much younger than his age, Tom’s body likely never had to build these collateral vessels since his primary vessels likely had very little underlying disease given his robust exercise capacity. Ironically, sicker patients are more likely to survive what happened to Tom because they have developed these accessory pathways. Since Tom didn’t have these bypass pathways given his supreme heart heath, the blockage of the major vessel to his heart had tragic and immediate consequences.

What happened to Tom was swift and unpredictable. It took a man of his health way too soon, but it could not have been predicted and was not caused by his relentless high energy engine, which he applied to the activities that he loved. We should take solace that he was having an amazing day biking and sharing stories and laughs with his best friend when he was struck by a random and fatal event. Tom passed suddenly and did not suffer when he was in the arms of his brother, who heroically did everything possible to save him against what proved to be beyond possible odds.  Tom is not a man to compromise and lived life to the fullest until his very last minute.