Vet, 24, ‘was dead for 5 MINUTES’ after heart attack

February 1, 2017

Lora D’Alesio, a veterinarian from Cardiff, collapsed one day as she got home
The 24-year-old’s heart stopped pumping for 5 minutes, medics said
She was later diagnosed with a rare congenital heart condition called Long QT
Often confused with epilepsy, it affects just 1 in every 2,000 people

Mia De Graaf For Dailymail.com

Published:
13:23 EST, 1 February 2017

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Updated:
15:01 EST, 1 February 2017

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Lora D’Alesio’s heart stopped pumping blood for five minutes after she suffered a cardiac arrest in July 2015. She was later diagnosed with a rare genetic heart disorder, Long QT

A veterinary nurse was ‘dead for five minutes’ after suffering a cardiac arrest at the age of just 24.

Lora D’Alesio had just arrived home from work with a colleague when she collapsed.

Paramedics rushed to revive her, and place her in an induced coma for three days.

It was later discovered the Lora, from Cardiff in Wales, has a rare genetic heart condition called Long QT, which can cause fast and erratic heartbeats.

The potentially fatal condition, often confused with epilepsy, affects just one in every 2,000 people worldwide.

‘I went into my house – I was hand-rearing two kittens at the time – when I began to feel really faint,’ Lorna explained, describing the experience in July 2015.

‘My colleague turned around and apparently I was on the floor.

‘She thought I was messing around but when my lips turned blue she knew I’d stopped breathing.’

Her colleague, who had been trained to administer CPR on dogs and cats, carried out the life-saving procedure on Lora until paramedics arrived.

Two months before the terrifying ordeal Lora had been experiencing heart palpitations, dizziness and chest pains.

She said she her GP had simply dismissed her as a fit, young and healthy young woman.

Now she has a defibrillator implanted into her chest which will shock her back to life if the same thing happens again.

Lora, now 25, said: ‘I’m determined not to let it get in the way of my life.

‘I still haven’t had my licence back from the DVLA [Britain’s equivalent of the DMV] so I still can’t drive which frustrates me. I still go running even though I’m not really supposed to.

‘They ran tests on my parents, my two brothers and sisters but their tests all came back normal.

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‘There was no history of sudden infant deaths in my family. The doctors have not really spoken to me about what implications this will have on my own future and starting a family, which is something I would like to do.’

The majority of people affected by Long QT are undiagnosed and unaware that they may be at risk of a deadly heart attack or cardiac arrest.

Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, medical director at the BHF, said: ‘The reality is that there are hundreds of thousands of people across the UK who are unaware that they could be at risk of sudden death.

‘If undetected and untreated inherited heart conditions can be deadly and they continue to devastate families, often by taking away loved ones without warning.

‘Thanks to the public’s kind support BHF-funded researchers have discovered some of the genes responsible for these frightening conditions but there is still much to do.

Moving on: Now Lora (pictured left and right) has a defibrillator implanted into her chest which will shock her back to life if the same thing happens again

‘We urgently need to fund more research to better understand these heart conditions, make more discoveries, develop new treatments, and save more lives.’

Inherited heart conditions can affect people of any age and each child of someone with an inherited heart condition can have a 50 percent chance of inheriting it.

For many families the first sign there’s a problem is when someone dies or suffers from heart attack or cardiac arrest suddenly with no obvious cause or explanation.

Each week in the UK around 12 seemingly healthy people aged 35 or under are victims of sudden cardiac death with no explanation, largely due to these devastating conditions.

For more information and advice about inherited heart conditions and to support the BHF to fund more research to end the devastation of heart disease visit www.bhf.org.uk/unexpected