Mike Roorda
Mike Roorda
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WZZM) - Learning that you might have a potentially fatal heart condition is bad enough but knowing you don't have the health insurance to cover the testing for it can be beyond frustrating.
Last January 28-year old Mike Roorda learned that he may have a fatal heart condition called Brugada Syndrome also known as Sudden Cardiac Death Syndrome.
Because of a lack of health insurance he had to wait 10 months before being tested. So for nearly a year he's been dealing with a new kind of stress, one that's threatening his life, "There's a 50/50 chance that I have it and there is no way to tell other than getting tested for it." But that wasn't an easy solution because Mike didn't have health insurance, "I felt helpless really more than anything else."
Helpless and scared that he might have the genetic heart condition, "I actually was told you know, look I'm gonna tell you this but you need to not freak out I believe is what my mom said." Mike's dad was diagnosed with the syndrome and there is a strong family history, seven of his male relatives died suddenly of heart attacks.
Brugada Syndrome affects the electric current in the heart, "It's a dysfunction in a sodium channel which is a piece of the cell and what it does is make electricity flow abnormally through the cell and it puts the patient at risk for their heart stopping suddenly. What we call sudden cardiac death." Metro Health Cardiologist Dr. Matthew Sevensma says this rare genetic heart condition would never be found through a routine check up, "You can't know that you have it you can't feel that you have it. And you're first symptom may be that you die from it."
The only treatment for Brugada is an implanted pacemaker that also acts as a defibrillator, "It's not gonna affect his life expectancy if he is implanted with a defibrillator." says Dr. Sevensma.
Mike waited ten months until he qualified for health insurance to be tested, " I feel okay now, but I'm guessing the closer I get to the actual moment of truth the more of a nervous wreck I'm gonna be."
Lots of paperwork and a little more waiting in the cardiovascular center at metro health - and mike is beginning to get nervous.
The first step in the process is an EKG that should show any abnormalities in Mike's heart rhythm. In less than ten minutes, a quick glance at the readout shows reason for Dr. Sevensma to be concerned, "So this shows me that the electricity of moving through the heart abnormally. It doesn't show diagnostic criteria for Brugada but there seems to be a pretty significant family history of sudden cardiac death."
While the test isn't definitive the results are strong enough for Dr. Sevensma to order a more comprehensive test, "The next phase of trying to figure out if you actually are at risk for that would be to infuse you with a medication."
But that could cause Mike to actually have a heart attack, "The risk of going through that is that it actually precipitate the abnormal heart rhythm that we're trying to find out if you are at risk for. And that's your heart stopping."
As a precaution Mike is hooked up to a defibrillator should he go into cardiac arrest during the procedure. It's another test that still only gives an 80% certainty that Mike has the syndrome he needs a 100% diagnosis to get an implanted defibrillator.
Mike is still waiting for the final diagnosis. He has one more test which involves threading an electrode up through the artery in his leg to his heart and triggering a heart attack. However the doctors did tell Mike he should prepare himself to have a defibrillator implanted in the next few months.
By Valerie Lego