Bonnie Pointer and her three sisters formed the quartet The Pointer Sisters in 1969. The daughters of a minister, the sisters grew up singing gospel music in Oakland, California, before pursuing careers as professional vocalists who played with genres that ranged from scat vocals to country ballads, according to Fox News. Bonnie was credited with writing the 1975 funk track “How Long (Betcha’ Got a Chick on the Side),” which was later sampled by the rap group Salt-N-Pepa. Bonnie left the group in the mid-1970s to pursue a solo career that gave way to four albums and hits such as “Heaven Must Have Sent You,” which charted at No. 11 in 1979, NBC News reported. She performed as a solo artist into the 2000s, releasing her final album, Like a Picasso, in 2011.
Cardiac Arrest Is Fatal Nearly 90 Percent of the Time
Although they are often mistaken for one another, heart attack and sudden cardiac arrest are distinct cardiac events. While heart attacks are caused by a blockage that prevents blood flow to the heart, which kills heart tissues that are starved of blood supply, cardiac arrest is caused by a malfunction in the heart’s electrical system that actually prevents the heart from working properly or pumping at all, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). Cardiac arrest is also far more deadly. More than 356,000 instances of sudden cardiac arrests happen outside of hospitals in the United States every year, like Pointer’s did, and nearly 90 percent of these result in death, according to the AHA. “There can be warning signs, but not always,” says Anezi Uzendu, MD, a cardiovascular medicine fellow at The Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus, and a cardiac arrest survivor, who notes that some people may have other cardiovascular disease (CVD) symptoms, such as chest pain, shortness of breath, getting lightheaded, or potentially passing out. “Some are lucky enough to have those signs and get to a hospital before cardiac arrest occurs, but other times, cardiac arrest occurs out of the blue and suddenly someone is collapsing,” says Dr. Uzendu, adding that although most cardiac arrest victims who receive CPR will still die, knowing the rescue technique is important. A study published in January 2019 in the journal Circulation found that hands-only CPR, meaning no breathing assistance is used, doubles a person’s chances of surviving sudden cardiac arrest. While cardiac arrest can occur in adolescents, more than 94 percent of cases occur in adults, according to the AHA. In older people, CVD, especially coronary artery disease (CAD), as well as arrhythmia and inherited genetics are often the catalysts for sudden cardiac arrest, says Uzendu. But when it does occur in young people, it’s typically athletes who have a condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), in which the heart chambers become stiff and struggle to pump enough blood, he says. According to the AHA, an estimated 1 in 500 Americans has HCM, but many don’t know it. Uzendu says that’s because people commonly aren’t screened for the condition in the United States. Bonnie and her sister Anita recently released “Feels Like June,” a tribute song for their youngest sister, who died of cancer in 2006, reported NBC News. It was the last song Bonnie recorded. Bonnie is survived by her two older sisters, Ruth and Anita Pointer. “Bonnie was our Beyoncé in the ’70s,” Ruth Pointer said in a tweet remembering her sister. “That smile, that infectious spirit. I love you Bonnie-Boo, thank God for you.”
