2,000 individuals under the age of 25 die per year from sudden cardiac arrest. This number is just for the United States and includes young adults who are seemingly healthy, athletes, and youngsters who don't know its coming, and certainly don't deserve it. Looking at that number in an expanded scope reaches 20,000 people every 10 years that we lose due to this disease. Sudden cardiac arrest can be caused by a couple different issues but the most common being enlarged heart disease or the medical term of Left Ventricle Hypertrophy. This is what I had wrong with me, I am a survivor who is thankful to still be able to tell my story when I should've just been another number on the board in the morgue.
It is a gift that I am still here to tell my story and that's what I plan on doing. I was diagnosed with Left Ventricle Hypertrophy stemming from Mitral Valve Regurgitation. This is a disease that caused my mitral valve to allow blood to rush back into my heart instead of being pushed out into my body. This caused a chain reaction into my heart causing my heart to have to push more blood and work much much harder than it should be. This caused my heart liner to begin to thicken and enlarge as well as become mishapen in the chest cavity. Due to all of this I was beginning to be short of breathe, lack energy in days, and have extremley high blood pressure. The thing is I didn't think it was my heart that was the issue, I played it off as many different issues such as asthma, allergies, and anything else I could think of. Thanks to this I almost allowed it to get to bad to come back from.
In December of 2021 I went for a yearly check up with my family physician. We made it through most of the visit and then he listened to my heart, he then asked me if he had ever said that I had a murmur in my heart. I followed up with a no and he got very interested in what was going on. He decided to send me for testing and got me scheduled for the soonest appointment for an echo cardiogram. That was the decision that saved my life. I found out later that most doctors don't immediately send for testing and if mine would've waited I probably would have been 1 of the 2,000 in 2022.
I went for testing and not more than a day later I get a call from my family physician stating that I need to get in immediatly to see a cardiologist because the test came back bad. That was the last thing I wanted to hear so my family and I got to work on getting into a cardiologist which is normally not easy. I got in with one of the top in the area in 4 days. I went in to visit with the cardiologist and his demeanor and tone said it all, it was not good. He stated that I was in a bad situation and that my heart was enlarged and my mitral valve was allowing an intense rush of blood back into my heart. He also stated that at the point it was at, there may be no recovery of the size, strength, and efficiency of the heart muscle. He also stated that he was headed down to the heart surgeon down the hall before I left to talk to him and get me in with him immediately and figure out the best course of action. I met with him who created a new way of doing the surgery and was the expert on the assignment, in less that 3 days.
When I met with the surgeon he got into the details of the situation I was in and the condition my heart was in. He basically told me I was the worst he had seen at my age and that if not taken care of immediately I wouldn't last more than a year. I was in such shock and so nervous that I didn't really know what was going on or what was being said I just kept saying yes. I got scheduled for surger in less than 2 weeks and for that 2 weeks I felt a rapid decline of my capabilities of day to day life.
I had surgery March 15th 2022 and that day was the biggest day of my life. This day changed the trajectory of who I am as a person and where I was headed in life. Thanks to fantastic doctors, nurses, and everyone else in the operating room I woke up in the recovery room looking up at my parents and thankful to be alive. I can't express my gratitude to all those people enough and all the nurses and therapists that helped with my recovery. It was a long hard road towards getting back to the man I was, and I can say that I still am not the man I was back then. That is an issue of another thing that came about within this surgery but that story is much more in depth and I plan to share that soon. The physical recovery although was an immense struggle full of pain, disappointment, and extreme boredom. I was in more pain than I have ever been in, couldn't cough without feeling like my body was exploding, and don't get me started on the pain of sneezing. I wouldn't trade any of that for the smiles, laughter, and memories I still get to share with all the people in this world that I love. I have a much different look on life now and just want to help others and create a better situation for those after me. Without the help of many many people out there that donate to the American Heart Association and volunteer and help in the betterment of treatment, surgeries, and recovery I wouldn't be able to be here running a half marathon and in possibly the best shape of my life.
I am in the works to create a plan of action towards making baseline echocardiograms a normalcy for all young athletes. We already test for baselines in mental capacity for concussion protocol, what is testing the heart any different? Many young fellows lose their life every year and we haven't made the strides to reducing the amount we lose. That is what I'm calling for.
