Anyway, after
20 minutes of the run I felt dizzy and, before I knew it, collapsed.
After coming round, within minutes I passed out again, so my friend rang
for an Ambulance. It arrived within 10 minutes and I felt a little
embarrassed by what I felt was a bit of a fuss.
On entering
the Ambulance they took an ECG and my heart was beating at around
150bpm. They were a little worried as I had stopped exercising about 15
minutes before. Within minutes I was finding it hard to catch my breath
and was rushed to hospital.
What I did
not know at the time was that my heart had gone into Ventricular
Tachycardia and was accelerating into a life threatening arrhythmia. On
arriving at the hospital I was taken through A & E and 'shocked'
(defibrillated) whilst still awake, to correct the arrhythmia. My heart
had apparently almost reached 300bpm.
After the initial overnight observation and resulting stay in the
hospital I was transferred to St Thomas' hospital in London for further
tests. Its funny to reflect on this time, as the night I collapsed
was the night before I was due to have a joint birthday party with a
friend - all I was preoccupied about was whether I would be OK to go to
that!
After a MRI,
EP studies and consultation between the cardiologists they advised I
have an ICD fitted as they could not rule out the risk that I could be
in for further arrhythmias. The doctors feel that I may have the
condition known as ARVC and the ICD would act as the ultimate safety
net. On receiving the news I was shattered. Though it had been inferred
all week it was to be the most likely outcome, it still shocked me as I
felt like my life had been altered forever.
So I had my ICD fitted the day after my 30th birthday. Once over my
first few weeks of recuperating life pretty much got back to normal.
Bike riding and lots of walking were my attempts back to 'normal' life.
I have since qualified as a teacher and begun teaching in September
2008.
All seemed
well until I received my first 'shock' from my internal 'safety net'! I
was playing 5 a side football - so was really pushing my heart to its
limits perhaps.
It is odd
that I have never had a single heart complaint in my life but suddenly
this year it seems there is a real problem. However, it is
comforting to find out (from sites like this, or being in hospital
itself) that there are others out there who have had similar experiences
- and like I try to think when reflecting on this: at least I am
alive and typing this!
David
Hillson
