The girl, 16, suffers from a disease inherited from her mother. Her heart stopped at school and she survived because she was revived in a timely manner
What does it mean to live on the razor’s edge of heart disease? He knows something about it Ginevra (invented name), a 16-year-old girl who attends an Agricultural Institute. When she turns 15, one morning like many others, she goes back to class with her classmates. She sits down. No time to look around and he slips to the ground: cardiac arrest. The teacher, aware of the cardiomyopathy from which he suffers, immediately frames the gravity of the situation. When he realizes that Geneva’s heart is still letting all the students out, he raises the alarm, he calls 118.
A few minutes
From the operations center they communicate the necessary instructions and she starts giving heart massage to the pupil. Automated external defibrillator is also used (Dae). This device that re-rhythms the heart muscle will not only save her life, but prevent irreversible brain damage from occurring. In the chain of survivalthat is the sequence of interventions that international guidelines have identified as crucial to ensure that a life is saved in cases of cardiac arrest, everything is played in no time: defibrillation, in fact, must take place within the fateful five golden minutes, international studies say.
Waking up after two days
What happened in Geneva? The father remembers those moments, which will later become days, of atrocious waiting. 118 arrived after 18 minutes. In the meantime, my daughter was “defibrillated” and her heart returned. Then they took her to the hospital, sedated and intubated in the ICU. She woke up after two days. Eighteen minutes is a long time and some train leaves it anyway. Ginevra has memory lapses, she can’t walk. But his brain does not suffer irreversible damage. The girl makes it and recovers. She accepts that it will come to her inserted a subcutaneous defibrillator. He talks about it with the cardiologists, with the parents and decides. Even though she’s just 16, even though she’s so thin, she’s going to have to live with a little nub there for a long time, close to her heart.
Sindrome X
Its not an easy story. The mother, an architect, had an unidentified heart disease, which was then called syndrome X. In the 1990s, the investigations weren’t as sophisticated as they are now. The woman had fibrillations, angina pains, he had to avoid exertion but led an active life. She did not agree to be treated with the drugs they had prescribed, the beta blockers, because according to her they inhibited her emotions. Unfortunately, pregnancy will be fatal: to die during childbirth. The autopsy will reveal that she had cardiomyopathy. When Ginevra is born, the odds that maternal pathology is part of her genetic make-up are 50 percent.
Checks and diagnosis
But still too early for a diagnosis: checked in Florence, her heart appears normal.
Geneva is growing and its development makes us forget that probable damage which might never manifest itself. He plays volleyball, goes to the gym, walks in the mountains without any problems. At 11, during physical education, she has chest pain. The alarm goes off and the investigations that are made in the two centers of excellence in Florence and Milan leave no doubts. Ginevra has a form of cardiomyopathy of the same type as her mother. She burst into tears. It was a very difficult time for her. S.only over time, with patience, managed to build a new balancesays the father. Her school helped her by placing her in a less stressful training course. You have found other interests, she is an entertainer in summer camps and in oratories.
April 28, 2022 (change April 28, 2022 | 10:57 am)
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