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M6⎮TORONTO STAR SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2015 ON ON1
PETER MUNK CARDIAC CENTRE
> PERSONAL TRAGEDY > PROTECTING THE
MOST VULNERABLE
Connecting the dots
How PMCC is managing high-risk
on irregular heart arrhythmia in pregnant women
Motivated by her daughter’s unexpected passing, a mother Pregnant women worry about
raises awareness about sudden cardiac death in young people many things: the health of their
babies, the pain of labour, the
JACQUELINE KOVACS Gollob’s testing revealed Jennifer WAYNE EARDLEY FOR THE TORONTO STAR responsibilities of motherhood.
was borderline for long QT syn- And for some mothers-to-be, that
SPECIAL TO THE STAR drome, a condition that impacts the Geri Morey holds up a photograph of her daughter, Nicole, who died at just worry list includes their hearts.
heart’s electrical ability to pump, cre- 21 years old of sudden cardiac death caused by Long QT syndrome, which
Geri Morey and her husband, Jeff, ating a risk of dangerous arrhythmia PMCC determined runs in Morey’s family. “A lot of arrhythmias are mani-
were awakened in the middle of the (irregular or abnormal heartbeat) fested only in pregnancy,” says Dr.
night with news that is every parent’s and sudden death. And because peo- PMCC, Morey was put on a beta clinical care and research innova- Danna Spears, cardiac electro-
nightmare: Their 21-year-old daugh- ple with this condition have normal blocker. She is grateful to have an- tion, says Gollob. physiologist at PMCC, who works
ter Nicole had been found dead in heart structures, explains Gollob, an swers, and at age 63, she is trying to closely with the centre’s maternal-
her bed in her residence room at the autopsy will not reveal any heart raise awareness about SCD in the “The PMCC has the largest inher- fetal medicine group. “This is often
University of Guelph. problems. young and the life-saving work at ited arrhythmia clinical and research due to the change in blood volume
PMCC. program in Canada and is dedicated or hormonal changes associated
An autopsy later showed no appar- Morey says when she showed Gol- to advancing the knowledge and care with pregnancy. We don’t un-
ent reason for her death; her heart lob the printout from Nicole’s halter “I have to do that for Nicole,” she in their field,” he says. derstand it completely.”
had simply stopped. heart monitor test, “it blatantly says. “As parents, my husband and I
showed that Nicole had had long QT both needed answers.” And as Morey knows, it’s the kind of What they do know is that be-
That was in 2003, and the Peterbor- syndrome.” care that can make all the difference tween 60 and 70 per cent of
ough, Ont., mother had her suspi- The PMCC is at the forefront of in people’s lives. pregnant women experience some
cions about what killed her daughter Long QT syndrome, explains Gol- kind of heart palpitations during
— suspicions based on at least lob, is just one of the causes of SCD in pregnancy and merit an investiga-
two generations worth of health his- the young, a tragedy that strikes 30 to tion. Of those, about one-fifth
tory. 50 Ontario families every year. have extra beats or true arrhyth-
mia.
“When I was in Grade 7, I had a “I personally see about two families
handful of fainting spells, and that a month who have lost a child and are “The good news,” says Spears, “is
continued until I was 21 and diag- seeking answers and clinical evalua- the vast majority can be managed
nosed with epilepsy,” says Morey. tion,” says Gollob. with conservative measures.” That
“When I was11, my mother, who was management can be as non-
32 at the time, died in her sleep.” Her Those evaluations are designed to interfering as learning mental and
mother, Morey says, had been in per- reveal whether a person’s arrhyth- physical methods to reduce anxi-
fect health, but did suffer from faint- mia is due to structural issues, such ety. And, explains Spears, “chanc-
ing spells. as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, es are, after the pregnancy, their
where the heart muscle thickens hearts will return to normal.”
When, at age14, Nicole started hav- dangerously, or conditions, such as
ing fainting spells, Morey took ac- long QT, which Gollob describes as For those rare pregnant women
tion. purely electrical. with more extreme arrhythmia,
the news is also good. As Spears
“She had all kinds of medical tests “We had all the red flags and no explains, it used to be that such
done,” says Morey. doctor questioned it,” says Morey. women risked a 50-per-cent mor-
“No one discussed that with us. I tality rate, so their choices were to
“They sent her for EEGs on her kept saying, ‘This is strange because abort, deliver early or undergo
head, they sent her for blood tests, my mother had nothing and she died radiation — a route with its own
urine tests and when everything was in her sleep. I was diagnosed with set of risks. Now those high-risk
negative, they sent us to do the same epilepsy and my daughter died in her arrhythmia cases can be managed
tests over again.” Nicole had also sleep,’ but they didn’t connect the medically or with catheter ablation
seen a cardiologist, who had the teen dots.” with no radiation exposure.
wear an electronic halter for a week-
end to monitor her heart. But at the PMCC, Gollob did con- Spears credits these advances —
nect those dots. He had the Morey’s as well as leading-edge work in
“But the result at that time, they extended family undergo genetic managing fetal arrhythmia — to
told us, was negative — there was testing, and while the results re- partnerships the PMCC has with
nothing there,” says Morey. vealed that Jennifer did not have maternal fetal medicine and high-
long QT syndrome, Morey herself risk obstetrics at Mount Sinai
Some 18 months after Nicole died, did. Hospital, and the fetal cardiac
Morey’s younger daughter, Jennifer, program at the Hospital for Sick
started fainting. Morey’s family doc- “For over 30 years, I took the wrong Children.
tor had retired and Jennifer was re- medication,” she says.
ferred to Dr. Michael Gollob, a spe- “We have a very unique situation
cialist in sudden cardiac death (SCD) After the correct diagnosis at at PMCC,” she says. One that
in young people at the Peter Munk means safer pregnancies and
Cardiac Centre (PMCC) in Toronto. better outcomes.
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