Charlie Vincent, of Irthlingborough, traveled to New Hampshire in June to work at a summer camp teaching kids how to paddle, but his first day left him with severe sunburn, resulting in second-degree burns to his legs.
However, this was only the beginning of what would become a serious medical emergency for the 20-year-old.
After camp leaders took him to a nearby hospital, doctors found the young man had pneumonia, a serious lung infection, and sent him into surgery to remove damaged tissue.
But while on the operating table, he suffered a cardiac arrest and mini-stroke, with his heart stopping for 25 minutes, his family claims, meaning he was clinically dead.
The source of the problem turned out to be an enlarged heart, a medical problem the young man had not been aware of until that moment.
The term cardiomegaly is used to refer to a medical condition in which the heart is enlarged, meaning that the organ has to work harder than normal. For this reason, a person with cardiomegaly is at greater risk of heart failure or stroke than a normal person.
In fact, an enlarged heart is not a disease, but rather an indicator of another medical condition.
Doctors believe Vincent may have had the condition, which causes an enlarged heart, since birth, but it wasn’t clear until he contracted pneumonia from a respiratory infection, which led to a heart attack and stroke during surgery.
People with an enlarged heart may not experience any symptoms until their condition becomes more severe. Symptoms can include shortness of breath, chest pain, heart palpitations, dizziness, and even fainting. Remarkably, in this case, Vincent survived without brain damage.
Vincent spent about a week in an induced coma, with doctors fearing he would need an urgent heart and kidney transplant, but after his “miraculous” recovery, that may not be needed.
Source: Daily Mail
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2024-08-06 12:14:58
