In Good Health - Winter 2012 - Fairview - (Page 4)

a shocking discovery In an average lifetime, the human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times without ever pausing to rest. Most of us take for granted the fact that our heart begins beating shortly after conception and continues to do so steadily and dependably throughout our life. But for some people, a problem can arise with the electrical energy that stimulates the heart, often without any prior history or warning. Local nurse suffers from cardiac arrest without warning and learns surprising details about her heart Lon Castle, Md Cardiology Specialty interests: Cardiac arrhythmias, device implantation, electrophysiologic studies and ablation of arrhythmias Cardiac Arrest at Age 31 Rachelle Maassen, a registered nurse at Lakewood Hospital, was 31 years old when she went into cardiac arrest. She had just arrived for her 7 a.m. shift in the hospital’s birthing center, when she slumped down in her chair at the nursing station, then lost consciousness. “I woke up around 1 p.m. in the Coronary Care Unit with a tube in my throat, unable to talk,” she recalls. “But I saw the familiar faces of my colleagues who had taken immediate action to take care of me, and they told me what happened.” Other than experiencing some heart palpitations a few months prior, when her personal physician conducted tests including an EKG and blood work that showed normal results, Maassen had no personal history of heart problems and no family history either. Following her cardiac arrest, she underwent a variety of tests, but no medical reason was revealed. Maassen was healthy; her heart just had an irregular rhythm (called arrhythmia). kEEP YoUR HEART In CHECk Lifesaving Technology … Inside the Body On Maassen’s fifth day in the hospital, Lon Castle, MD, cardiologist at Lakewood and Fairview hospitals, implanted an ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) with a pacemaker. The ICD acts as an instant defibrillator, able to shock the heart back to a normal rhythm. On the sixth day, she went home to her husband and three sons, the youngest just 14 months old. For more information about Electrophysiology Services at Fairview Hospital, call 216.476.7853 or go to fairviewhospital.org/heart. you know? dId 4I In Good HEALTH The average heart beats 72 times per minute, according to The Franklin Institute. http://www.fairviewhospital.org/heart

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of In Good Health - Winter 2012 - Fairview

In Good Health - Winter 2012 - Fairview
Contents
Give birth your way-midwives are ready to help
Could you have an irregular heartbeat?
Truck driver steers his heath back on track
Doing it her way
Don't fall for these eight myths about back problems

In Good Health - Winter 2012 - Fairview