Getting Charlotte Dancing Again A Heart Arrhythmia

Transcript

• 00:01[♪]
• 00:06- In order for the heart to function well,
• 00:08it has to be pumping in a very coordinated fashion.
• 00:13For that all to work together,
• 00:15there's a complex electrical system inside the heart.
• 00:18- The electrical signals
• 00:20are the foundation of the heartbeat.
• 00:22An electrical signal leading the a squeeze of the heart
• 00:25is like a dance.
• 00:28The electricity of the heart
• 00:29has to move in a coordinated fashion,
• 00:31so that the blood can move through nice and smoothly.
• 00:35- That coordination provides the normal rhythm,
• 00:38or squeezing pattern for the heart.
• 00:40And when that goes awry,
• 00:42that's what we call an abnormal rhythm, or an arrhythmia.
• 00:45- Abnormal electrical impulses
• 00:47can lead to a variety of symptoms in patients,
• 00:50and it can even lead to heart failure over time in some patients.
• 00:58- I'm Charlotte and I'm 10 years old.
• 01:01I do dance, like ballet and Irish dance.
• 01:06- The first time she had an episode
• 01:08was when she was dancing.
• 01:09She was doing Irish dance, which is very aerobic at times,
• 01:14and she just stopped and said
• 01:15"My heart's beating really fast."
• 01:18We checked her pulse, it was definitely going very fast,
• 01:21and it just wasn't slowing down
• 01:22the normal way you would think it would slow down.
• 01:24- It felt like it was popping out
• 01:27and it was going super fast
• 01:28and I could feel it when I put my hand over it.
• 01:33- Charlotte's symptoms were caused by SVT,
• 01:36or superventricular tachycardia,
• 01:39which is an abnormally fast heart rhythm.
• 01:42So she used both the normal circuit of her heart
• 01:45and also this extra electrical pathway in her heart
• 01:48to create a circuit,
• 01:50that gave her palpitations that were not dangerous
• 01:53in and of themselves,
• 01:54but understandably very uncomfortable for her.
• 01:57- [Charlotte] Sometimes it would just come
• 01:58and I would have to stop.
• 02:00It's harder for me to dance,
• 02:02concentrating on what I'm meant to be doing
• 02:04instead of trying to concentrate
• 02:05and trying to make it stop.
• 02:08- It was nerve wracking, however,
• 02:10Dr. Beach was very calming with explaining
• 02:14exactly what was happening.
• 02:16This is a condition that could be
• 02:17potentially very dangerous,
• 02:19but this is how we're gonna deal with it.
• 02:23- We have special pediatric cardiologists
• 02:25who deal with the electrical system of the heart.
• 02:28You can think of them as the cardiac electricians,
• 02:30if you will, and we call them electrophysiologists.
• 02:34- [Dr. Beach] Charlotte underwent a procedure
• 02:35that we call an electrophsyiology study and ablation.
• 02:40We use catheters to access blood vessels
• 02:42at the top of the legs to get to the inside of the heart
• 02:45through the body.
• 02:46We use these catheters to find
• 02:48the abnormal electrical signals in the heart
• 02:50and then create a little scar right at the exact area,
• 02:54so that the electricity can't move
• 02:56at that particular site.
• 02:58We start by making some geometry of the heart,
• 03:00so that we actually have a 3D heart model
• 03:02we're looking at,
• 03:04and we watch our catheters, and we map the electricity,
• 03:07so that we can actually see where the electricity moves through the heart
• 03:10and we see the normal electricity
• 03:12as well as the abnormal electricity in this way.
• 03:15- [Heather] With the ablation procedure,
• 03:17she would only have to be in for a day or two at most,
• 03:19and it would be through the femoral veins,
• 03:22so they don't have to open up her heart
• 03:24or anything like that, a very safe procedure.
• 03:31- [Dr. Asnes] The programs within the children's heart center
• 03:33span everything from heart rhythm abnormalities
• 03:36like arrhythmias to heart failure,
• 03:39where the heart muscle itself is not working,
• 03:41and perhaps the patient needs a heart transplant.
• 03:44It's really a comprehensive program
• 03:46that takes care of patients and families
• 03:49with heart problems that got diagnosed,
• 03:51perhaps when they're in utero,
• 03:54and we will manage those heart problems
• 03:55all the way through til adulthood,
• 03:57when our patients are hopefully having their own families.
• 04:01- [Dr. Beach] Charlotte's doing awesome.
• 04:02She hasn't had any symptoms
• 04:04since she had her procedure.
• 04:06- [Heather] She's doing great.
• 04:08Since the surgery, she is back to her normal self.
• 04:12We just don't have to worry about anything.
• 04:15- [Charlotte] It feels better than worrying about
• 04:17whenever I do jumps and stuff.
• 04:19Is it gonna happen, is it not gonna happen?
• 04:21We don't really even think about it much anymore.
• 04:24- [Dr. Beach] I just feel so honored
• 04:27to be able to play a part
• 04:28in allowing Charlotte to not even have this
• 04:32be an issue for her.