Weird Patient: Cats are said to have 9 lives, but this woman had 10!

Today in weird patientthe unique story of a woman whose heart stopped and then started again ten times during her life, without her realizing it!

” Cats have nine lives, but this patient with cardiomyopathy hypertrophic has had ten (so far) “. This is how doctors at Tufts Medical Center in Boston who treated a 62-year-old retiree chose to title of the article relating this extraordinary case published last April. Almost twenty years ago, this woman, then aged 44, was diagnosed with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy. This genetic disease causes thickening of the walls of the heart which obstruct the circulation of blood. Like many cases, it presents little or no symptoms betraying the presence of a anomaly when the latter is detected. On the other hand, several members of his family were diagnosed with the same disease and two of his brothers died from it at the ages of 20 and 34.

A heart saved 10 times from death

Indeed, if hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is mild, the affected heart may stop at any time – a phenomenon called sudden death cardiac. Fortunately, the 44-year-old patient is the ideal candidate for the installation of a device that precisely prevents sudden cardiac death, a defibrillator implantable device (ICD). When it detects a life-threatening abnormality in heartbeat, the device sends a small electric shock to regulate the beating of the heart. Unlike the pacemakerthe DAI can also treat tachycardias (rhythm too high) while the pacemaker is effective in case of bradycardia (rhythm too low). In the majority of patients, the ICD detects and warns between one to three cardiac arrests during its period of use, but in the extraordinary case of this 62-year-old woman today, it has saved her life 10 times in 19 years. A record among patients followed by doctors at Boston Hospital.

The implant saved her life for the first time 17 months after its installation, then when the patient was 48 years old, then at the age of 49, twice the year of her 51 years, three times the year of his 54 years and twice at 62 years. Each time, it was in completely banal circumstances: five times during his sleep without realizing it and five other times during sedentary activities during which she felt unwell. Of all these moments when her heart failed, the patient retains very little sequels. At the age of 52, she had to undergo a septal myectomy, i.e. theablation excess muscle around the septum, the area that separates the two ventricles of the heart. Since then, she no longer suffers from any symptoms caused by her hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy and her implant continues to monitor her heartbeat. A popular belief is that cats have 9 lives, but this lady had 10. So far.