Adolescent Cardiac Care - Part 2
We concluded the series last Friday, with Dr. Peter Hesslein, a specialist in pediatric cardiology electrophysiology which is the study and treatment of the heart rhythm disturbances. Dr. Hesslein was brought up in the northeast, born in western Pennsylvania and raised in upstate New York. He was an undergraduate major in English at Yale University, followed by a year on Wall Street, returning to complete pre-med studies and medical school at Baylor University. He did his pediatrics residency at Northwestern in Chicago and next in cardiology training at Baylor. In 1980, Dr. Hesslein took further training in the emerging field of cardiac electrophysiology.
Dr. Hesslein was on staff for six years at the Hospital for Sick Children (the largest children's hospital in North America) in Toronto, Ontario, 17 years at the University of Minnesota and the past ten years in Puget Sound. Dr. Hesslein is a member of the Northwest Children's Heart Care, a private practice group which is a subsidiary of Mednax Corporation. His practice is based at Swedish Hospital.
Sudden Death in the Young is involved in every large community in the United States and has organizations similar to Nick in Time Foundation which was the start of our series. During his presentation, Dr. Hesslein showed examples of young patients who died after collapsing and dying during a game. The only difference between syncope and sudden death is that you wake up after a syncope attack. Syncope has different forms from a simple fainting spell to other forms of syncope. Basically, the brain isn't getting enough blood. There are other ominous forms which can last longer than a minute and require CPR. Dr. Hesslein talked about physical exams, heart murmur and blood pressure. He explained that electrocardiogram is a simple form of detection and much less expensive and echocardiogram which he showed what a simple faint looks like on the screen.
Incidents of sudden death usually occur with limited diagnostics because the youth didn't show any history of heart issues. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the leading cause of sudden death. In the case of Reggie Lewis, Boston Celtics, he had myocarditis. These programs really do alert us to the numerous troubles with events when a youth dies from Sudden Death syndrome. We want to thank Darla Varrenti, Sue Apodaca and Dr. Peter Hesslein for taking the time to share this major medical issue with us.
Dr. Hesslein is well aware of the benefits of Rotary. If he didn't have to work five days a week from early morning to early/late evening he would likely be a Rotarian. You see his two children were Rotary Exchange Students and his family hosted three Exchange Students. He feels that the Pacific Northwest is the best place to live and work and wished he had moved here 30 years earlier.