It was 50 years ago, no more, no less, that Alex Mitchell tragically passed away after being unable to stop laughing for about half an hour. All because of the BBC comedy series, The Goodies.
The bricklayer from King’s Lynn, Norfolk would become known as “the man who died laughing”. It was believed that he had suffered a heart attack caused by the effort of laughing. At least until 2012.
That year, doctors confirmed that, after all, the Brit died due to a rare hereditary heart disease. The episode “Kung Fu Capers”in which Bill Oddie played a master of “Ecky Thump”, a supposed Lancastrian martial art that used black pudding as a weapon, and Tim Brooke-Taylor appeared as a Scotsman who defended himself with a bagpipe, proved fatal.
But Mitchell actually died from sudden cardiac arrest caused by long QT interval syndromea heart rhythm disturbance that can be triggered by physical exertion or adrenaline surges.
Why such a late diagnosis? The reassessment of the case came after his granddaughter, 23-year-old Lisa Corke, was diagnosed with the same condition, which raised suspicions among cardiologists interested in the case.
Lisa suffered a cardiac arrest at home in 2012 and was clinically dead for 55 minutes, until she was revived thanks to cardiopulmonary resuscitation maneuvers carried out by her husband, Mick, who followed the instructions of the emergency service. She was then admitted to hospital and a defibrillator was implanted to reset her heart’s rhythm.
At the hospital, tests revealed that long QT syndrome was hereditary on her father’s side, also Alex Mitchell. At the time, the woman, a previous “suspect” of the “crime”, told the woman that it was strange to share with her grandfather a potentially fatal condition that, in his case, went down in history as one of the most unusual deaths ever reported.
Strong emotions, adrenaline or exertion can trigger fatal arrhythmias in patients with long QT syndrome. But technically, Alex’s case shows that yes, .
His widow, Nessie, now 86, wrote to the program team in 1975: “My last memory of my husband is looking at him and hearing him laugh at your program.”
