Danville man survives heart stopping; mom calls it a 'miracle'

Matthew King felt perfectly fine while playing basketball — a game he and his friends regularly enjoyed.

Suddenly, the 23-year-old felt dizzy and collapsed, hitting the ground face first.

“Next thing I knew, they were picking me up,” Matthew said, recalling the events of Jan. 30.

Matthew noticed his face and knuckles were bleeding, but the college student was ready to continue his game. He Blackberry-messaged his mom that he had passed out.

Memories resurfaced for mom Lori King when she got his message. Matthew had heart surgery for two holes in his heart when he was just 5 months old. As a baby, he also had a history of tachycardia, where the heart beats too fast.

For most of his life, Matthew’s heart seemed fine although he had congenital heart disease. When he was 18, he needed a pacemaker for a low heart rate.

Lori, who wasn’t in town, tried to convince her son to go to the hospital. She called her mom, a nurse, who picked up Matthew and took him to Danville Regional Medical Center’s Emergency Department. Lori, a licensed practical nurse who works at Danville Regional, told her son to tell about his history.

They took him right back.

“One thing I always worried about with Matthew was people wouldn’t take him seriously because he seems so healthy, especially when he’s sitting up there in the stretcher laughing,” Lori said. “I knew how serious it could be.”

Matthew, a renowned jokester, admitted he just wanted to go home and eat. He didn’t want to go to the hospital.

“I was perfectly fine,” he said. “I was ready to go.”

The hospital called local cardiologist Dr. Bosh Zakhary, who advised interrogating Matthew’s pacemaker for the heart history. The data confirmed his heart was beating too fast around the time he passed out.

Matthew was sent to University of Virginia Medical Center. In the ambulance, Matthew updated his situation to friends on Facebook.

One post read, “in the back of ambulance heading out of Danville headed to UVa. This is going to be a boring 4 hour ride. Hit me up.”

U.Va. doctors confirmed Matthew’s heart had stopped.

Lori and her son recalled the doctor’s words, “It was sudden cardiac death and you survived it.”

After that, Matthew began taking the situation seriously. Doctors implanted a defibrillator, which could shock his heart if it stopped again. They don’t know why his heart started beating again on the basketball court.

“I don’t know how he survived,” Zakhary said. “Nobody had shocked him.”

The mom called it a “miracle.”

“I’m a cat. I got nine lives,” Matthew quipped.

Lori was glad Danville Regional admitted her son quickly and got him the help he needed.

“I’m proud of our hospital. They could see how serious that could be,” she said. “We had a wonderful outcome. Even a miracle needs good follow-up medical care.”

Matthew, like his mom and grandma, plans to become a nurse. Because he’s a huge Duke fan, he would like to work at Duke University Medical Center.

After he fully healed, Matthew finished his interrupted basketball game.

What is sudden cardiac arrest?

This is when the heart abruptly stops working. It occurs when an electrical problem with the heart that triggers a dangerously fast heart rhythm, causing the heart to quiver rather than pump.

Sudden cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack, which is caused by blockage in a vessel. Unless a defibrillator shocks to the heart to restore its regular rhythm, death can occur within minutes. More than 70 percent of victims die before reaching the hospital, according to estimates.

While sudden cardiac arrest occurs in active healthy-looking people, most victims have heart disease or other health problems but don’t know it. Most had a previous heart attack or coronary artery disease.

People with weak heart muscle are susceptible to irregular heart rhythm and sudden cardiac arrest, said Dr. Bosh Zakhary, a local cardiologist. It could also happen to young people born with weak heart muscle.

Those with weak heart muscles are candidates for implanted defibrillators in case of needing to shock the heart to develop a regular rhythm again, Zakhary said.

“These devices now have really been perfected,” he added. “ … Most of these patients can live a normal life after that.”

Parents need to be proactive in asking if doctors detect heart murmurs or irregular heartbeats in their children and if they need further evaluation, said Dr. William Sweezer of Cardiovascular Surgery of Danville and Duke Surgery. A pre-sports physical may not be sufficient. Painless tests like echocardiograms and electrocardiograms could help detect problems.

While in medical school, Sweezer and fellow students would play basketball. During one game, a one student, who always seemed to be in great shape, passed out and never woke up — a case of sudden cardiac death.

“It’s important to know that sudden cardiac death occurs in all age groups,” Sweezer said. “And the recognition is critical to survival because once it’s recognized or suspected, then evaluation, confirmation and treatment can be initiated.”

Sources: Heart Rhythm Society, Medtronic