Atrial Fibrillation

According to wikipedia atrial fibrillation "comes from the fibrillations (i.e. quivering) of the heart muscles of the atria, instead of a coordinated contraction. It can often be identified by taking a pulse and observing that the heartbeats don't occur at regular intervals."

Normal Heart Beat

At 5:00 pm on Thursday I called my mom to ask a few questions and she said there was a problem and she would call me back in a minute. About 10 minutes later she called me extremely upset and worried. She said that she was sitting in the the ICU with my dad and his heart monitor starting doing something weird.

Three or four doctors came running in and were trying to figure out if this was really a heart attack. They told my mom he is having a heart attack and we are taking him to the 4th floor to do a procedure (which was to put a stint in the heart, they didn't ever have to do the procedure). They said this is the best place to have a heart attack and took him away.


My mom called me after they took him and she was all by herself in the waiting room, she was really scared and upset. She told me he had a heart attack and she would update me every 30 min. After 45 min of worrying she called and said he was okay and that it was just an atrial fibrillation, not a full blown heart attack.

Friday morning I talked to my mom and she said he had another little episode at 10 pm. They gave him some nitroglycerin under his tongue to regulate his heart and his numbers all looked good this morning.

A few causes according to the Doctors:

- 17 total hours of surgery (13 transplant, 4 to remove infection) too much stress on the heart
- Metabolic imbalance (too much potassium, or other fluid in the body)

They have run quite a few heart tests (EKG) and they didn't find a blockage. The cardiologists will be watching him closely today and he will probably be in the ICU for a few days.

My mom said she has never been so scared in her life and after talking to her I was the same way. I feel for her and I am so grateful to my aunt lynn for being there to help her deal with the stress. Thank you all for your love and prayers.