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mikestewtoday at 6:21 PM2 repliesview on HN

Wolf-Parkinson-White Syndrome, yup, that's me. It killed a college ball player about twenty years ago, killed a high school player just a few years ago:

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/community-aims-raise-a...

I was about 40 years old, and would have tachycardia under a very specific set of circumstances. As in, 30 minutes after exercise, heart rate was still at 140bpm. One stress test later, it was off to get that ablation.

My wife calls it "heart surgery", and I guess technically it is. It's about as easy a "surgery" as you're going to get: lie on a table, get the catheter, half hour later you're done. Stay overnight to make sure you don't bleed out from the catheter site, back home like nothing happened.

If it is suggested to you to get this done, do it, it is super-easy as far as invasive procedures go, and it could save your life. 20 years post-surgery, and I still run ultramarathon trail races, and haven't had a problem since.


Replies

Cyuonuttoday at 6:48 PM

I walked out after 11 hours from walking in. It's amazing that you can do it after an instrument piercing through a wall in your heart and freezing some nerves on the other side.

Barrin92today at 7:11 PM

It killed a kid in my sports class growing up as well. Dropped like a stone, cardiac arrest, couldn't be resuscitated. After that they had a 'heart health' mobile ekg come to the school once a year for people who wanted a check up which I thought was a great idea. They actually diagnosed a few people, I think at least two others with WPW but also a more common condition where the wall of the heart thickens which can also be dangerous during exercise.