Heart problems: Mallon and Toms
On Sunday, after the Solheim Cup finished, Meg Mallon's heart shot up to 290 beats per minute. (Mallon, of course, had clinched the Cup for the U.S. with her victory.) She had to be taken to the hospital, where she stayed until today. She apparently is doing better.
Today, David Toms had to withdraw after 9 holes of the 84 Lumber Classic after complaining that he "couldn't breathe." Toms was airlifted to a local hospital, and went through a battery of tests. Toms is in critical condition. Stay tuned for more info.
UPDATE: Toms is better and was released from the hospital after suffering a bout of supraventricular tachycardia (rapid heartbeat). It's been diagnosed as curable. More here.
Meanwhile, one apparent medical expert wrote in to say Meg Mallon couldn't have had a heartrate of 290 beats per minute. I'll defer to the expertise of the commenter, although that's what AP reported. I'm not a doctor, but I did check with one, who confirmed that it is possible to have a heartbeat that high if it's atrial fibrillation (which is what Pres. Bush Sr. had). This analysis does say it can cause heartbeats even over 300 beats per minute.
4 Comments:
seems like walking 4 or 5 miles playing pro golf is still not enough exercize or maybe this is mostly congenital causes?
She would be dead at 290bpm. Heroin can't even get your heart up there like that.
Max heartrate for her is probably in the 190 range. Formula is basically 220 minus your age, adjusting for your level of fitness.
Are we possibly seeing the consequences of the use of performance-enhancing beta blockers?
Atrial rates can go that high, generally HR is a ventricular contraction number. Max HR's are for training purposes and are ventricular. As for the cause, AFIB does occur for no apparent reason in 30% of the cases. And may actually be a result of "over exercise". More common in marathon type runners, etc...
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