Icy balloon to help calm a racing heart

MORE than a million Britons have a heart rhythm problem known as atrial fibrillation. Philip Cale, 36, a community mental health nurse from Worcester, in the West Midlands, underwent a new procedure for it, as he tells SOPHIE GOODCHILD.

THE day after my work Christmas party in December 2016, i woke up and noticed my chest was fluttering. i thought perhaps i had overdone it — i don’t drink but i had come home around midnight.

However, as i’m otherwise fit and healthy, i got on with the day as usual, getting my two daughters, aged nine and three, up and then sitting down for a cup of tea with my wife, Catherine. like me, she is a mental health nurse and has advanced training in resuscitation. When i told her that my chest felt funny, she dialled 111 and they advised me to go to a&E.

my pulse was around 170 to 200 beats a minute, more than double the normal heart rate (60-100 at rest). Despite me not drinking or taking drugs, the a&E staff were convinced i must have done because heart rhythm issues are rare if you’re under 40, but blood tests showed i’d been telling the truth.

next i had an electrocardiogram (ECg), which measures the heart’s electrical activity and i was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. i knew this meant an abnormally fast heart rhythm, which was worrying.

They gave me a beta blocker to slow my heart but it made no difference, so i was admitted to the resuscitation unit. The colour drained from Catherine’s face when they told us: resus is for seriously ill patients.

i was sedated and the medical team then used a defibrillator to shock my heart into a normal rhythm. When i came round it was no longer racing.

a few weeks later i saw a cardiologist who said not to worry because people my age don’t get atrial fibrillation and HOWEVER, that it was probably a one-off.

HOWEVER on good Friday last year i woke up with the same strange sensation in my chest: we were on holiday in norfolk and went to the local hospital. The symptoms lasted four hours but then stopped. Clearly it wasn’t a one-off.

my gP referred me back to the hospital in may. This time my pulse was constantly erratic, i had stabbing pains in my chest, lasting up to a couple of minutes, and my energy levels were so low that the ten-minute walk to my daughter’s school would take me 20. i had to be signed off work.

at my appointment, i was told about a new procedure where they freeze the area triggering the abnormal heart rhythm. The cardiac nurse said it was better than doing it with heat, which is the usual way, as this can damage blood vessels.

Hearing that something could be done made me feel better.