Mom on a mission
Carla Lewis wants public to know warning signs of the heart condition that took her seemingly health teenage son
Aphone call brought Carla Lewis the news that no mom ever wants to hear. On July 7, she was in New York celebrating her birthday when she received the news that her 17-year-old son DeQuavion Lewis had died.
“I got the phone call they were working on him. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through. I was in New York and I couldn’t get to him. I thought he’d had a wreck but they were like ‘no, no.’ At that point I didn’t know what happened. Probably 20 minutes later my sister called and said ‘He’s gone.’ I said, ‘What do you mean he’s gone.’ I could hear everybody crying.”
Carla asked her sister to video call her so she could see her son.
“I saw that he had tubes and stuff coming out of his throat. His color was gone so I knew. His time of death was 6:02 p.m. I was in a state of shock,” she said.
Carla searched frantically for a flight home and found one leaving at 2 a.m. She arrived home July 8 with more questions than answers about what had happened to her seemingly healthy son.
Those answers wouldn’t come until she received the autopsy report in late August.
DeQuavion died from Sudden Cardiac Arrest.
“The autopsy revealed he had an enlarged heart with left ventricular hypertrophy as well as LQTS (Long QT Syndrome) type 4 gene mutation that causes arrhythmia, the most rare type. I had no idea. He was very athletic and in shape,” she said.
Symptoms of LQTS may not be present, but if they are, they can include fainting suddenly, seizures because the brain may not receive enough oxygen if the heart continues to beat erratically and sudden death. Symptoms of LQTS can occur during sleep or upon waking from sleep.
“Long QT Syndrome is a heart rhythm condition that can potentially cause fast, chaotic heartbeats. These rapid heartbeats might trigger a sudden fainting spell or seizure. In some cases, the heart can beat erratically for so long that it causes sudden death,” according to the Mayo Clinic.
LQTS is treatable with medications, surgery or an implantable device.
Carla, a nurse, searched her memory for any indication DeQuavion had symptoms of LQTS before he died. He never complained of dizziness or feeling faint to her but he had mentioned symptoms to another family member.
“His little brother told me something. He said, ‘You know, sometimes when Dee woke up in the morning he’d say his chest hurt or he felt dizzy.’ He said, ‘Mama, we didn’t think anything about it,’” she said.
“It just bothers me because my child didn’t tell me. Sometimes I wonder if we’d talked about it, could his death have been prevented. …I started doing research on SCD (sudden cardiac death) and to my surprise it happens more than usual in teens. A simple test … or blood work possibly could have saved his life if only I knew of his symptoms. I’m a nurse. I could have done more and he possibly would still be here,” Carla said.
She shared her grief and DeQuavion’s story in hopes that it might save someone else’s life.
“I’m not sure if our community knows how serious this is,” she said.
She wants her son to be remembered for his many great qualities.
“He was a good person, a loving person. … He put himself in everybody else’s shoes. He was sensitive and funny. I want people to remember his smile and his laugh. He was also hard-working,” Carla said.