Does this happen?

Hey everyone,
I have a question about the events from the Hockey Game Monday night.
Where a player who used to play for my home team the Bruins collapsed,
He was diagnosed with Afib last year during a routine physical and had what was called
A small procedure and put on meds, he collapsed Monday Night
And needed to be defibrillated, was called a cardiac event!? He is scheduled
For an ablation in the next dew days

I don't mean to sound like a fool, or expect anyone to know his background
But it was claimed to have saved his life because the doctors and the defibrillator
Were close.....is there any information that afib can be deadly?
And like I said who knows if his mess did it, or he was using drugs ,etc
It just set my mental stress level through the roof hearing the story and there is
Really no one else to talk to except the people on here, who experience it and are
Knowledgable about it......sorry is I sound like a nut job!! Lol
Hope everyone is well!

I'm guessing ventricular fibrillation vs. atrial fib.

An AED works on "shockable" ventricular rhythms (i.e. NOT flatline like shown on TV). Vfib is very dangerous, but I'm not aware in any general sense that afib leads to vfib. If he had afib, I don't think the two are connected.

George

[bleacherreport.com]

Smack an first time I saw the full article thanks
Only getting bits and pieces guess he might have
More going in that just afib, prior ablation might have
Been a botch who knows.....I'm sure his career is over

Dr John Mondrola did a nice post on it. I think his point was that for someone that young to have afib, he probably had other pathology that could have lead to the arrest.

John

Do you have a link to that post John?

Mandrola: <[www.drjohnm.org] and <[www.drjohnm.org]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2014 11:13PM by GeorgeN.

Thanks John, wow that Dr Mandrola is an intelligent man!

"Medically, it's a little difficult for the doctors to pin down precisely what happened, as they were focusing mostly on reacting and only had a small rhythm strip once they attache the AED to go off of. Dr. Dimeff said that strip indicated Peverley's heart was bouncing between two abnormal and extremely dangerous rhythms, ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation."
<[www.defendingbigd.com]

Also: "There was nothing the doctors could discover that would have caused it to start, so doctors believed it was most likely the expression of a genetic condition. Peverley's mother has atrial fibrillation as well, though she is obviously older."

Hi Joey1974,

I drove down to Phoenix today where I am at the moment getting ready to fly to Orlando first thing in the morning for the ISLAA conference, so have not had a chance to watch look into this event with the Hockey player yet. Did you say he is a close friend of yours?\

Not knowing his medical history of details of that prior incident that was supposedly diagnosed as AFIB last year, its hard to comment. But if he had to be defibrillated out of unconsciousness due a an arrested heart it was almost certainly a ventricular arrhythmia as George noted.

Some athletes as well as many non-athletes can have co-exisiting and associated but not necessarily a causal relationship between having AFIB episodes and also having VT or even VF.. both are very dangerous conditions with the later being the mechanism behind sudden death type cardiac arrest.

If he is having VT or VF in particular the AFIB part is the least of his worries but is not good to have simultaneously either. Hockey is also the least of his worries if he is having Ventricular arrhythmia to the point of true arrest and needed defibrillation at his age.

That could be due to a hyper-trophic cardiomyopathy as the underlying cause of a Ventricular arrhythmia, but its too hard to say from just what you wrote above.

If it was another episode of AFIB or more likely high speed tachycardia or flutter, the one thing that I know of that could be related to an atrial arrhythmia and knocking you on the floor to the point of almost passing out could be pro-arrhythmia from one or more of the cardiac drugs like Rhytmol or Flec they might have been giving him to control AFIB ( though its hared to imagine the guy playing high level hockey on either of those drugs long term)

Anyway, I know from personal experience that i wouldn't wish on Atilla the Hun that a 1 t o1 flutter arising potentially from such a drug induced pro-arrhythmia could make you more or less keel over an d feel like you passed out. But its not the same thing as true cardiac arrest, Though if a 1 to 1 flutter went on too long it might well led to your heart giving out.

It sure the heck feels like its about to bottom out! Anyway, if you can find any more info about your hockey friend ( if I heard you right) pelase let me know as Im curious if he really did have a cardiac arrest and need true defibrillation or whether this was a DC cardioversion for some atrial arrhythmia?

Alas, I have no time at the moment to do a search on the topic until I return from Orlando next week.

Cheers and best wishes to your friend .. or just the Hockey player in any event!

Shannon





joey1974 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey everyone,
> I have a question about the events from the Hockey
> Game Monday night.
> Where a player who used to play for my home team
> the Bruins collapsed,
> He was diagnosed with Afib last year during a
> routine physical and had what was called
> A small procedure and put on meds, he collapsed
> Monday Night
> And needed to be defibrillated, was called a
> cardiac event!? He is scheduled
> For an ablation in the next dew days
>
> I don't mean to sound like a fool, or expect
> anyone to know his background
> But it was claimed to have saved his life because
> the doctors and the defibrillator
> Were close.....is there any information that afib
> can be deadly?
> And like I said who knows if his mess did it, or
> he was using drugs ,etc
> It just set my mental stress level through the
> roof hearing the story and there is
> Really no one else to talk to except the people on
> here, who experience it and are
> Knowledgable about it......sorry is I sound like a
> nut job!! Lol
> Hope everyone is well!

Shannon,

Here are what is relayed from some of the linked stories above.

In the offseason, afib was discovered.

They cardioverted him at the Cleavland Clinic and put him on meds, electing to delay an ablation till after this season.

The week before, he had a med dosage increase.

The episode happened.

Dr. Mandrola hypothesized 1:1 flutter from meds, however the treating docs (see my post above yours) said from the little rhythm strip, he was bouncing between vtach and vfib.

They very quickly shocked him with an AED and also had him on IV meds. He responded immediately.

Have a safe trip to Orlando.

George

Thanks George,

I trust the Docs knew how to discern 1 to 1 flutter from Vtach or VFib? Not all can. Good news he is doing okay now. His long term hockey career might rest on what the underlying diagnosis really is.

Will check into next week when I get a breather.

take care, Shannon

Shannon,

Obviously the AED thought it was a shockable rhythm and since the shock worked, it was. From my CPR/AED class, Vfib and most Vtach rhythms are shockable.

George

More details from the team doc. He'd had afib in a game a week before and they "adjusted" (I assume increased) his med. Then the episode from last Monday: <[starsblog.dallasnews.com]

"he was bouncing between VT and VF" maybe Torsades. Glad they were able to act fast and save him. I am with Dr. John regarding his comment on his guess that medication may have been the problem and the fact that dosage was upped just several days prior to the incident. I also wonder if Peverley has low resting heart rate like many elite athletes. That would be a factor too..

In some people with afib, when the heart tries to convert to normal sinus rhythm, bradycardia occurs, producing a long QT. The heart can slow or stop (asystole). Happened to me, but luckily I was in the ER at the time. I had also been given an IV antiarrhythmic, which almost proved deadly.

That is what has happened to me, a couple of times when going back into NSR, my heart rate went down and I flat lined for a couple of seconds, one of the times I was in the doctors office and it was caught. My EP told me to go to the hospital, he said I had to have a pace maker implanted, so I now have a pacer, those times that my heart rate went now, I started to black out, but didn't. I am glad I have the pacer as I no longer fear going back into NSR from an episode of AF.

Did you get a pacemaker as well?

Liz