[Fatalities in a rehabilitation center for cardiovascular diseases (author's transl)]

From 1967 until the end of 1974, a total of 32 524 treatments were carried out at the Höhenried clinic. There were 40 fatal incidents, corresponding to a mortality rate of 0.12%. 5386 treatments were carried out in 3606 infarction patients. Of these, 29 patients died, which, related to the treatments, corresponds to a mortality rate of 0.53% and, related to the number of infarction patients, to 0.80%. The main cause of death was acute cardiac death. 10 fatal incidents occurred in temporal relation to kinesitherapy. Retrospectively, severe ECG changes due to infarction, pathological reactions to stress as well as disorders of cardiac rhythm and cardiac hypertrophy can be regarded as being indicative of a particular danger to patients.