21-year-old nursing student needs emergency procedure to stabilize her heart
Hailey Guido had heart arrhythmias her whole life, but she did not let it slow her down.
“I would feel it come on and always thought it was anxiety,” said Hailey. “My heart would just beat really fast for a short amount of time.”
Hailey, 21, works full-time as a phlebotomist in Kerrville. She’s also a full-time nursing student. Her heart rate would sometime top 200 beats per minute. After several serious episodes landed her in the hospital, doctors diagnosed her with Supraventricular Tachycardia, a faster than normal heart rate. They referred her to a specialist in San Antonio.
“Dr. Roman-Gonzalez said I was young and instead of taking medicine the rest of my life, he was going to do a catheter ablation procedure to reset the electrical rhythm,” said Hailey.
Hailey went to Methodist Hospital Texsan a week before Christmas to have the procedure done. Her parents were in the waiting room. They were told the procedure typically takes 45 minutes, but during the procedure Hailey’s heart was not responding to the treatment.
“97 percent of the time we can cure the abnormal rhythm with a cardiac ablation. Our team is very experienced and is able to handle more complex arrhythmias. In her case, her arrhythmias did not respond to the standard approach. We had to be more aggressive to help her,” said Dr. Javier Roman-Gonzalez, clinical cardiac electrophysiologist at Methodist Hospital Texsan.
Hailey required an implantation of a dual-chamber pacemaker to stabilize her cardiac condition after a successful elimination of the cardiac arrhythmia.
“The doctor came out asking for permission to put in a pacemaker. I was shocked,” said Jennifer Guido, Hailey’s mother. “He said her heart would not beat on its own.”
Jennifer and her husband gave consent for the team to put a pacemaker in Hailey. Then one of the nurses came out to update Hailey’s family on what was happening.
“I was standing there, and this wonderful surgical nurse came out and started explaining things to us,” said Jennifer. “It felt like a lifetime. They spent most of the evening getting her heart to stabilize.”
The next day, Hailey said she felt much better and was able to go home after a few days of monitoring.
“In the past four months since the surgery, I’m back in school and doing great. We are going with the flow of everything,” said Hailey. “Dr. Roman-Gonzalez did an amazing job. The people there were great, for this being as dramatic as it was.”
Hailey plans to graduate from nursing school in December. She said she was never scared because, being the medical field herself, she trusts the doctors and nurses.
“A lot of people have pacemakers, and I knew it was something I needed,” said Hailey. “The staff made sure I didn’t leave the hospital without knowing what to do.”
Methodist Hospital Texsan was recognized by the American College of Cardiology for its expertise and commitment in treating patients who come to the electrophysiology (EP) lab and cardiac cath lab for care. Texsan is also designated as a HeartCARE Center.