As a personal trainer, a heart condition could not stop Tyler Jackson.
Granted, he had surgery at birth to repair a rare congenital defect, so he had been in lifelong care of a cardiologist, but suddenly in his early 20s he wasn’t able to work out and for a person in his profession, this simply couldn’t happen.
“It was scary at first,” says Jackson. “I thought I was having a heart attack when I’d work out, so I stopped immediately and rest for ten minutes to try again, but I kept experiencing it.”
“It” was the heart arrhythmia atrial fibrillation (AFIB) and tachycardia. While a very common issue for people as they age, it is not for a 22-year-old.
“Tyler is one of the youngest AFIB /tachycardia patients I have seen who has required many cardioversions (electrical shock to the heart for restoration of normal rhythm),” says Ali Mehdirad, MD, the director of cardiac electrophysiology services at the Center for Comprehensive Cardiovascular Care at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital. “But I do believe his defect played a part in that.”
Tyler was born with a rare defect called Transposition of the Great Arteries, a condition where the pulmonary artery and aorta are switched. He was hospitalized for the first couple months of his life, but went on to lead a very active lifestyle, eventually becoming a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine in 2007. However, Dr. Mehdirad believes scar tissue on his heart from that surgery led to his heart’s inability to beat in rhythm.
That feeling of a “heart attack” wasn’t a heart attack. It was his heart “fluttering” due to atrial fibrillation.
“A stress test found my heart was beating around 250 beats a minute,” says Jackson.
The test confirmed AFIB and tachycardia, which can be debilitating in some cases and overall significantly increase a patient’s stroke risk. Dr. Mehdirad scheduled Jackson for a procedure called a cardiac ablation.
Instead of an open procedure, Dr. Mehdirad, ran a catheter through a tiny incision in Jackson’s neck and into the heart. From there, the areas of tissue where the abnormal rhythms emanated were treated with radiofrequency energy that cured Jackson of his AFIB.
“It is a very common procedure, but uncommon for a man in his early 20s,” says Dr. Mehdirad.
In quick time, Jackson was back working out, getting in shape and consulting others as a personal trainer.
“Everything is normal and good,” he says. “I feel great again.”
