Lauren’s Story: Putting an End to Fainting Spells
Lauren was just as active as any child when she was young. She was part of soccer, basketball and dance teams when she began to have fainting episodes. She usually recovered very quickly and at first, no one was alarmed. But as time went on, the episodes became more intense.
“It probably happened eight or nine times. There was one where I was out for about ten minutes, which was really embarrassing for me.” She began getting treatment at Cincinnati Children’s and eventually she was able to control her symptoms with just medication. But everything changed when her middle daughter, Avery, was born.
Knowing that long QT syndrome can be inherited, Lauren and her doctors were on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary. The pediatrician at the hospital that delivered Avery did not see any signs of long QT in her tests, but just to be sure, they sent the results to Lauren’s specialist at Cincinnati Children’s Adult Congenital Heart Disease Program. He regretfully informed Lauren that he found signs of the condition. “It was devastating,” Lauren remembers. Thankfully, from then on, Cincinnati Children’s has cared for both of them. In fact, Lauren and Avery have been completely free of fainting episodes ever since.
“I tell Avery, ‘You have a special heart just like Mommy.’”
(Published October 2017)
