Cindy Crawford’s son, Presley Gerber, dies at 27
Presley Gerber, the son of Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber, has died at 27. He died on Sunday, September 20, at a rehab facility, according to Los Angeles County Medical Examiner records.
As more details are revealed about Presley Gerber’s death, questions are emerging about the connection between overdoses and cardiac arrest.
While Gerber’s death is being investigated as a suspected overdose, according to the Santa Monica Police Department, new reports suggest the son of supermodel Cindy Crawford may have gone into cardiac arrest before he died on Sept. 20 at age 27.
Law enforcement officers were dispatched to the 1000 block of Berkeley Street at 9:35 a.m. on Sept. 20 for a cardiac arrest, according to recordings obtained by People and Page Six. A separate dispatch indicated first responders were responding to an overdose at the address.
What is a cardiac arrest?
Cardiac arrest happens when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood to the body in a person who may or may not have heart disease, according to the American Heart Association.
With a cardiac arrest, the “heart stops and cannot do its vital function to pump blood to the rest of the body,” Dr. Quentin Youmans, a heart failure and heart transplant specialist at Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, told USA TODAY in a statement.
Most people who suffer cardiac arrest do not survive, according to the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, but those who live are at risk of neurological consequences and changes to physical and psychological wellness.
More than 350,000 out of hospital cardiac arrest deaths occur each year in the United States, the heart association adds.
How are overdoses and cardiac arrests connected?
While irregular heart rhythms cause most sudden cardiac arrests, recreational drug use can cause cardiac arrest in otherwise healthy people.
In an overdose, how someone gets to cardiac arrest depends on the drug involved, Dr. Adedapo Iluyomade, a preventive cardiologist based in Miami, told USA TODAY in a statement.
For example, stimulants such as cocaine or methamphetamine can “directly overwork the cardiovascular system, triggering life-threatening heart rhythms, coronary artery spasm, heart attack or extreme elevations in blood pressure,” Iluyomade said, whereas opioids such as fentanyl can “suppress, or even stop, breathing, causing oxygen levels to fall and eventually lead to cardiac arrest.”
Dr. Gregory Katz, cardiologist at NYU Langone Heart, added that while cocaine can certainly cause a heart attack, “when I hear cardiac arrest in the setting of overdose, that is much less likely to be cocaine and much more likely to be opiates.”
Opioid use in the U.S. is a “significant cause of cardiac arrest and death among adults ages 25 to 64,” the American Heart Association noted in a 2021 scientific statement.
In the same statement, the organization highlighted how cardiac arrest from opioid overdose has unique features that affect its prevention and treatment.
“Opioids include prescription medications, as well as nonmedical and synthetic opioids restricted to hospitals such as heroin and fentanyl, respectively,” the organization noted. “In the case of opioid use disorder, they are frequently mixed with alcohol or other toxic substances, which increases the risk of overdose.”
Mixing substances is “especially risky,” Youmans added, “And alcohol can lead to further suppression of breathing.”
Even in a young person without any known heart disease, a single overdose can “absolutely cause cardiac arrest,” Iluyomade added.
“Chronic drug use can also increase the risk of cardiac arrest over time by progressively damaging the heart muscle, accelerating vascular disease or increasing the risk of abnormal heart rhythms,” he added.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental and/or substance use disorders, you can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s free and confidential treatment referral and information service at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). It’s available 24/7 in English and Spanish (TTY: 1-800-487-4889).
Contributing: Liza Esquibias, Sameen Chaudhry, Natalie Neysa Alund and Emily Vetter