Lauren ’s story: How roller derby saved my life

I wasn’t a particularly athletic child. The second day of soccer practice, in sixth grade, we had to run laps around the soccer field, and 10-year-old me said, “I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack!” My coach disagreed. I quit. That much running was not for me. Fifteen years later, at age 25, I had not only joined a roller derby league, but had also worked my way up to doing contact drills at practice in just three months. I felt incredible! I felt powerful! I felt unstoppable… until I went into cardiac arrest at a Thursday night practice this past July. A lost two days I woke up the following Sunday at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), and couldn’t remember the last two and a half days. I was told I had been doing a drill as a jammer (point scorer) and trying to push three opposing people hard enough to break their formation and skate past them. I had backed off to approach them again, when I went down on one knee, then on all fours, the safest way to go down. My teammates thought I needed a break — then I rolled over and my lips started turning blue. One of my teammates immediately started giving me CPR. The Enfield Police brought a defibrillator and I was transported to DHMC. Lauren prepares for surgery The doctors told me they had run some tests, and thought it was a problem with my heart, but needed to do a cardiac catheterization to confirm. They discovered I had ALCAPA, which is an anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery....
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Diseases & Conditions Our Patients’ Stories ALCAPA Boston Adult Congenital Heart Program Coronary Artery Program Dr. Luis Quinonez Source Type: news