SA mourns DJ Dimplez: Here is what you need to know about his cause of death
|Published
DJ Dimplez. Picture: Instagram
The music industry is lamenting yet another sudden loss and talent.
This time it is the founder of Pop Bottles and Hip hop DJ Boitumelo Mooi, popularly known as DJ Dimplez.
The family said DJ Dimplez died on Sunday of a sudden brain haemorrhage. They requested respect and space as "we process Tumi's tragic passing".
The music star kicked off his career working for popular TV shows such as Vuzu and Channel 0.
Many are still trying to make sense of his passing and what sudden brain haemorrhage means.
Heart and Stroke Foundation SA explains that the medical name for this is “cerebral haemorrhage”, which simply means “bleeding in the brain”.
Most bleeding strokes are caused by uncontrolled blood pressure, but there are other reasons why blood vessels in the brain can become weakened too. Only 2 in 10 strokes are caused by bleeding, the majority are caused by clots.
Dr Coceka Mfundisi, a Johannesburg based neurosurgeon, created a thread to help people understand it better.
Mfundisi, said, “condolences to the family who have lost their loved one through this. It is really a tragedy and they must be asking themselves a number of questions”.
She started explaining, “the most common and catastrophic cause of brain haemorrhage is rupture of an aneurysm.
“An aneurysm is a blister that forms on the wall of the blood vessels and at some point the weak point will give in. This leads to an immediate bleed characterised by a sudden severe headache. The headache is so bad that it is described as ’the worst headache of my life’,” she said.
What could lead to this? Mfundisi said, “predisposing factors for aneurysm formation include smoking, genetic connective tissue disorders and some infectious diseases.
“The other cause is what we refer to as a hypertensive bleed or commonly a stroke. Surges in blood pressure are also associated with use of recreational drugs. This bleed tends not to be immediately catastrophic – a person often makes it to hospital.
“The other cause is vascular malformation. Blood vessels have an artery part and a vein part. Think of these as piping systems for water. The artery is designed for high pressures and the veins are designed for lower pressure.
“An artery supplies blood with oxygen and the vein drains blood back to the heart. In between the artery and vein there are arterioles and venules – smaller vessels which are intervening.”
She further explains that, “in arteriography malformation, there is a connection between the high pressure and low pressure systems. This can result in bleeding.
“The next cause is subdural haemorrhage which is bleeding in the potential space between the actual brain and its tough covering, the dura. This is common in cases of trauma and elderly persons.”
If you really want to be proactive, Mfundisi said, it’s unfortunate that you cannot just walk into a GP’s office and ask for tests. “There isn’t much screening unless a person is high risk and is symptomatic of a blood vessel lesion. The testing is very specific and is symptom based. So you can’t walk into your GP’s office and ask that they check if you do not have an aneurysm.”
She concluded her thread with a disclaimer that she only included the causes of spontaneous bleeds or those that occur with negligible history of trauma.