On Nov. 11, 2016, his life took a startling turn by almost coming to an abrupt end. While lifting weights in the garage of his Huntington Beach home, Deits collapsed on the floor.
His “arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy,” in which fat and fibrous tissue replace muscle, caught all concerned unawares. “Usually, the first symptom of ARVC is cardiac arrest,” Deits noted.
Fortunately, his parents discovered him within minutes. Ted Deits preformed CPR on his son until the Huntington Beach Fire Department arrived. Paramedics defibrillated Deits’ heart twice without success. “I vividly remember thinking, ‘A family just lost a son today,’” recalled Capt. Travis Ponder. But after trying again in the ambulance, they detected a faint heartbeat.
Then came the real lifesaver: a newly approved heart pump for right-sided arrhythmia, which is relatively rare. More patients experience trouble with the heart’s left side. Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach had acquired the device, called an Impella, just one month before. Deits became the first child in the United States to undergo the procedure.
A few days later, the teen awoke from an induced coma with his sense of humor fully intact – alleviating concerns of brain damage due to loss of oxygen during the episode. Doctors implanted a pacemaker to regulate his heart rhythm.
Read the full article: Graduation 2019: 2 years after near-death heart attack, teen tolerates cap and gown — but he’d rather be skydiving (The Orange County Register)
