Member Profiles

SHAWN

After reading some of the other stories that are posted here. I would just like to stress to everyone who has a heart condition to make sure that they are being treated properly and ask many questions from your doctor and if they fail to answer your questions and blow you off find another doctor who will listen. It could be a matter of life and death. My father who was 51 yrs old passed away this past July. Since 1993 he was being treated for unknown syncope spells. In the beginning they believed that he had had a mild infarction and then thought that the syncope was being caused vasovagally. He started medication therapy which at first seemed to help. Eventually the syncope episodes became more and more frequent and he lost his job along with med insurance. He was forced to seek treatment for these episodes at the VA hosp. Over a three yr period of time he was seen in the ER there too many times to count. He was also hospitalized and once again started on another medication and to no avail the condition still continued. All of the times he was taken to the ER they ran EKG's and left him in the ER until he stabilized and then sent him home. Since his passing I have obtained his medical records. I have sat in front of my computer for nearly a week now researching everything in his medical records. One of the things that stand out in the records are the results of his EKG's. Many of them show as abnormal with Right bundle branch block and left anterior fascicular block. In researching this I have found out that both of these together contribute to unexplained syncope. Obviously this didn't raise any concern to any of the dr's in the ER b/c they never followed up with any more tests. They even went so far as treating him for Orthostatic hypertension and then prescribed Dilantin for the syncope. Because the syncope episodes were convulsive in nature they assumed that they were seizures. All in all the condition that he was presenting in the ER each time could have been properly diagnosed and
probably successfully treated if only the doctors would have taken the time and listened and ran the necessary tests. This could have probably been controlled with a pacemaker which was also a question that was brought up with the doctors and they blew us off. His death has been devastating to our family. He left behind 3 wonderful grandson's who absolutely adored him. So to anyone who may be dealing with these types of doctors, who won't listen. Please seek medical attention elsewhere.





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