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Volume 13, Issue #3. Published on February 28, 2005
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Like a Thief in the Night
Unexplainable deaths steal away Southeast Asian refugee males in the 70s and 80s. Could it happen again?
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Brandon Hamilton
Asian Pacific Review
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A young man lies down to sleep. A recent immigrant from Southeast Asia, he is 25 years old and in perfect health.
During the night he gasps suddenly, as if struggling to breathe, then abruptly dies.
Subsequent autopsies and examinations reveal nothing physically wrong with him. There is no apparent cause of death.
Is this a memory of the past, or a vision of the future?
During the late 70s and 80s over one hundred male refugees from Southeast Asia died in their sleep for unexplainable reasons. With the recent arrival of Hmong refugees this summer, it is unclear if Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome (SUNDS) may once again kill Southeast Asian men in the prime of their lives.
SUNDS, also known as also known as Brugada Syndrome or Lai Tai, affected men aged 25-44 within the Southeast Asian refugee population. The victims would die in their sleep, leaving fearful families and baffled doctors behind.
Fear swept through refugee communities. Some men set alarms to go off every half hour to make sure they woke up. Others wouldn't sleep at all, afraid they would never wake up Hmong wives were encouraged to learn CPR and to sleep lightly beside their husbands.
Doctors struggled to find a cause. One suggestion was that the stress of going through the Vietnam war and relocation to the US was responsible for the death. Yet why were only young men affected? Women among the community were just as stressed. And elderly refugees, who were more susceptible to health problems, were not dying of SUNDS.
"Since males in these cultures often have to put up a façade of stoic strength, even during very difficult times, they may not be able to express their anxieties openly," said M.L. Tan, reporter who has followed SUNDS for years. "Suppressing these emotions could make them more susceptible to this sudden death syndrome."
SUNDS deaths eventually tapered off in the late 80s, transforming the nightmare into a bad dream. But not before taking 117 lives.
"Nutritional problems, congenital defects in the heart, and stress may all be co-factors that contribute to the sudden deaths," said Tan. Recent studies point to a genetic cause for SUNDS. Scientists located a certain mutation that may cause an irregularity in heart rhythms. The irregularities would be especially dangerous when the body is at rest, sleeping.
However, the mutation was only found among some, not all, of SUNDS victims, leading some to suggest that the mutation may be acquired. Yet it doesn't explain why only young men among the refugee population were affected. Nor does it explain why the deaths occurred during a narrow period of time, and has disappeared since then.
There are concerns that the latest group of Southeastern refugees may also encounter the same baffling and terrifying events that their predecessors endured.
Will history once again repeat itself?
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