Ava’s Story: I Want to Raise Awareness for Other Kids
“I want to raise awareness for other kids who may be living in fear of their own hearts, just like I once was. You are not alone.”
In eighth grade, in the middle of recording a school project, Ava experienced her first attack of what she later learned to be Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome (WPW).
“Nobody in my family had ever suffered from heart disease, so the thought that I might have one never crossed my mind. My story begins in eighth grade. At the time, I was a happy and healthy 14-year-old girl, a starter in the attack position on my lacrosse team. I had played lacrosse my whole life and had fallen in love with the game.
As eighth grade came to an end, I had one final group project for my history class. My group and I spent days after school filming. One afternoon, as we sat around a table recording, my heart suddenly began to race. I tried to ignore it and finish my lines, but it only got worse. My words started to stutter, my lips turned purple, and my friends thought I was just messing up. We restarted the scene, but now my heart was pounding out of my chest. I stood up, laid down on the floor, and closed my eyes. When I opened them again, my friends were laughing, assuming I was joking—but I needed them to understand something was very wrong. I tried to ask them to call for help, but no words came out. My vision began to fade.”
For someone with WPW syndrome, episodes of rapid heart beating—also known as tachycardia—can begin suddenly and without warning, lasting anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. These episodes, also characterised by chest pain, difficulty breathing, dizziness, fainting, fatigue, shortness of breath, and anxiety, can be extremely frightening, especially for someone who hasn’t experienced one before.
“A few minutes later, my brother Alec rushed me into his car and drove me home. I ran inside to my mother, still unable to speak. She placed her hand over my chest, and I’ll never forget the look of pure fear on her face. She immediately drove me to the hospital.
The fear of walking into a hospital without knowing what’s happening to your body is something I’ll never forget. By the time I was lying on the hospital bed, my heart rate had started to return to normal, and I could finally speak again. The nurse asked questions, but all I could think was, what just happened to me? The doctor told me I needed to see a cardiologist as soon as possible.”
After being rushed to the hospital with her mother, Ava’s symptoms were subsiding, and she was quickly referred to a cardiologist. At the appointment, Ava had an electrocardiogram (ECG), a simple non-invasive test which shows how fast or slow the heart is beating, and was diagnosed with WPW syndrome.
“At my cardiology appointment, I had my first ECG. The results quickly revealed the answer: Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, or WPW. It’s a condition where the heart has an extra electrical pathway that causes episodes of rapid heartbeats. My cardiologist explained that I would need a procedure called a catheter ablation to fix it.”
WPW syndrome is a congenital heart condition, meaning it is present at birth. The condition occurs when there is an extra electrical pathway in the heart, causing signals to move between the chambers too quickly—essentially, they take a ‘shortcut’. This in turn causes the ventricles to contract early, which can make the heart beat too fast. Treatments for WPW syndrome can vary depending on the frequency and severity of symptoms—the first line of treatment is a catheter ablation, which offers high success and low risk, curing the condition in over 94 percent of cases. This is the procedure Ava underwent.
“After that appointment, I returned to school wearing a heart monitor. I tried to hide it under my uniform polo, but I couldn’t. My peers didn’t understand and made fun of me. Soon I learned that my condition could be triggered by exercise. My second scare happened right on the lacrosse field, in the middle of a game. After that, my coach refused to put me back in until a doctor cleared me to play. I was heartbroken. I lived in constant fear of another attack, each one traumatic and paralyzing.
Finally, the day of my ablation came. Rolling into the operating room in a hospital gown was terrifying. I was put to sleep for the procedure. Doctors inserted thin, flexible tubes into blood vessels in my groin and guided them to my heart. Once they found the extra pathway, they used heat to destroy that tiny piece of tissue, blocking the abnormal signals and restoring my normal heartbeat. When I woke up, my doctor and parents told me the procedure had gone perfectly. After a short recovery, I was back to my usual routine—including lacrosse.”
It can feel terrifying and isolating to suffer from a heart condition, especially those like WPW syndrome where attacks can be sudden and unpredictable, and especially at a young age when peers may not understand what you are going through. Ava’s story is a reminder that heart conditions don’t always look a certain way, and highlights the importance of seeking medical attention quickly when experiencing heart-related symptoms.
It is for stories like Ava’s that Her Heart exists—to raise awareness around heart health and to show girls and women they are not alone. We are working to create a world in which every woman has access to life-saving knowledge, quality healthcare, and the support they need to prioritise their heart health.
“That time in my life was confusing and scary, especially at such a young age. I was embarrassed to explain to people why I sometimes had a monitor strapped to me. Processing the trauma of my episodes took years. Nightmares of having an episode kept me up some nights. I felt alone in this, knowing nobody that could relate to me. But now, four years later, as a senior in high school, I’m finally ready to share my story. I want to raise awareness for other kids who may be living in fear of their own hearts, just like I once was. You are not alone. Thanks to incredible doctors and care, I haven’t had another WPW episode since my ablation. Today, I continue to play lacrosse and run track—stronger than ever.”