So this post has been a long time coming. We had some very scary times back in September and thought we’d share the story (something we wrote a week after the incident).
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Last Tuesday evening (8/28) 4:30pm, Nate went out for a regular bike ride on a route he often takes (a 20 mile loop on the Greenway out to Hopkins and back). About half way into his ride, behind Knollwood mall, he looked back at his back tire (which he had recently done some work on), and upon looking forward felt dizzy and felt the initial effects of a blacking out. This is the last thing he remembers happening.
He woke up later, in the grass, still in his bike clips, feeling like he had come out of a deep sleep. He saw someone walking nearby and flagged them down for help. They called 911 and an ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital, HCMC, downtown. By doing the math (time he left home, distance traveled, time the ambulance was called) we believe that Nate had been lying there for 30-45 minutes unconscious before waking up on his own. Doctors have gasped at this aspect every time, how unbelievably lucky he was.
Nate had actually called me upon waking up and once again when the ambulance arrived. He told me they were taking him to HCMC, because they were one of the best for head traumas, I think we all believed at this time that he had fainted for whatever reason (empty stomach, dehydration) and then suffered a concussion from the fall.
I met him in the HCMC emergency room around 6:15 or so. We quickly realized that “back in a bit” actually meant 1 to 2 hours later. Numerous tests and labs were done, and around midnight maybe, we received our first inkling into what had happened. All of the results had come back good - except for one, an enzyme called Troponin. This enzyme in the blood is released when there is damage to the heart, a normal amount is between 0 and .9 - Nate’s was at a 3 and later rose to a 7 before starting its decline.
Obviously, the doctors were concerned and admitted him to the CCU (coronary care unit) at HCMC. We probably didn’t get into this room until 2:30 am Wednesday, then there were tests until maybe 3:30 am. We probably didn’t get to “sleep” until 4 am or so.
Issues concerning Nate’s heart aren’t totally new. About three years ago, Nate went to see a Cardiologist at Abbot-Northwestern. He had started to notice some pulpitations but was told it was nothing to worry about.
Wednesday consisted of more testing that included an ultrasound and an MRI. It was an intense day due to the fact we still didn’t know what was wrong, and the doctors seemed perplexed as well. All we could do was wait.
On Thursday, we were still waiting for the results from the MRI and ultrasound when Nate went in for his Angiogram. Here a catheter is inserted into an artery in his groin and guided to his heart to take photos of his arteries to check for blockage. This procedure did have risks (scary), and the second part of the procedure is 6 hours of laying down, no movement (giving time for the major artery to heal). With the Angiogram they did not find anything - a good thing - it ruled out any artery blockage. The doctor actually said that Nate had the arteries of an 18 year old, and that it was
nice to not find anything for a change!
It was later on Thursday that the doctors told us they believed Nate had Right Ventricular Dysplasia. A rare genetic disease. At the bottom of Nate’s right ventricle there is a small amount of fatty tissue (that may have been there since birth) - this tissue has replaced the muscle that should be there and thus is cause to an irregular heart rhythm (arrhythmia).
They believe that on Tuesday night while riding his bike Nate had an arrhythmia of the heart that was so fast it wasn’t pumping enough blood - which caused his blood pressure to become very low - which means reduced blood flow to his body - obviously causing him to pass out. Thankfully (so so so so so lucky) his body/heart corrected itself, his heart returning to normal speed - getting oxygen to the lungs etc..
The treatment for this was the implantation of a defibrillator. This device monitors his heart and sends electrical impulses that can pace the heart back to a normal speed or deliver a larger electrical shock to “reboot” his heart in case the arrhythmia is too fast and pacing can’t pull him out of it.
On Friday Nate had two operations back to back. The first was electrical physiotherapy where they test the electrical pathways of his heart, how it works, where it doesn’t, etc. The second was the implant of the defibrillator. Again there were risks involved, for example, to make sure that the defibrillator worked, they had to put Nate’s heart into a fast arrhythmia to test its ability to bring it out of that. These procedures started at 3pm and ended at about 7pm.
Thankfully, everything went well and the rest of the night was devoted to healing and rest. We both actually got a decent nights sleep.
Saturday morning was again more rest. Nate was able to eat breakfast (one of his 3 meals in all the 5 days I think, just due to surgery…). And he was discharged around noon. It all happened so fast that day that when we got home we were a little like “what happened?”
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We again want to thank everyone for their support during those difficult times. It really meant a lot!
If you want to learn more there is a really great series on PBS right now called the Mysteries of the Human Heart. You can watch the 3 episodes online here. The second episode is all about defibrillators.
If you want to see the new bike i built designed to keep me from riding fast check it out here.
