Column: At a checkup with my cardiologist, I got a crash course on how to stay alive

It was the nighttime when my racing coronary heart woke me up. I took deep breaths and tried to calm down.

Irregular coronary heart rhythms are nothing new for me, so I didn’t panic when this occurred late final yr. However prolonged irregular beats do get my consideration, as a result of about 10 years in the past, I went into cardiac arrest after knee surgical procedure and needed to be resuscitated by a nurse.

Finally, I fell again asleep, and within the morning I activated a tool that reads my pacemaker and sends information to my heart specialist. She rapidly made a analysis, modified my meds and the racing went away.

Along with the machine that reads my pacemaker, I’ve a wristwatch that may take an electrocardiogram in 30 seconds and add it to my smartphone, so I can ship the outcome to my physician.

These and different gadgets designed to observe numerous well being issues are already broadly in use or in improvement. A lot so {that a} just-published story by Kaiser Well being Information requested the query: “Will your smartphone be the following physician’s workplace?”

The quick reply isn’t any. Web but anyway, with numerous unanswered questions on accuracy, privateness, cybersecurity, Meals and Drug Administration approval, insurance coverage protection, commercialization of fine well being, and honest entry to expensive gadgets. And expertise will be glitchy and a headache, typically driving up reasonably than reducing my blood strain.

However together with the challenges and dangers, there’s massive potential in expertise that provides sufferers a better position in monitoring their very own well being and provides docs one other device to higher handle sufferers.

Because it occurs, I had an everyday checkup with my heart specialist, Dr. Leslie A. Saxon, on Tuesday, and she or he agreed upfront to offer me refresher programs on the advantages and challenges of medical expertise, and on what individuals ought to know concerning the causes and therapy of cardiac arrest. The current collapse of Buffalo Payments participant Damar Hamlin and the demise of Lisa Marie Presley each concerned cardiac arrest.

Saxon’s aide positioned a wand-like sensor over my pacemaker and studied the readout of what my coronary heart has been as much as over the previous few months. Each little hiccup is recorded, serving to Saxon decide the frequency, kind and length of irregular rhythms. Saxon had me draw deep breaths as she listened in with a stethoscope, and whereas she studied my coronary heart, I picked her mind.

Saxon has been Lopez’s heart specialist since he went into cardiac arrest 10 years in the past and was resuscitated.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Instances)

Saxon, who docs at Keck Drugs of USC, is a professor, scientific scholar and government director of the USC Heart for Physique Computing, whose mission is to develop methods by which expertise can “make healthcare extra private, inexpensive and accessible for all.” In different phrases, she was the right particular person to reply my questions.

Saxon instructed me that a couple of yr and a half in the past, she was on a flight to Los Angeles that had simply left North Carolina when a girl close to her collapsed.

“She’s not acutely aware, however I can really feel a weak pulse,” Saxon mentioned, recalling the emergency.

Lopez checks his Apple Watch, which has health-monitoring options.

(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Instances)

The physician eliminated her Apple Watch, put it on the unconscious lady’s wrist, and positioned the girl’s finger on the little nub that detects coronary heart perform. (It’s the method I exploit when I’ve an arrhythmia.) The studying from Saxon’s watch went to her telephone, and she or he knew precisely what was occurring.

“I see that she’s on this rhythm known as atrial fibrillation,” mentioned Saxon, who requested a flight attendant for a saline answer from the aircraft’s medical provide package. Saxon began an IV and the girl, a diabetic, quickly recovered. “I simply stayed together with her, and she or he’s wonderful, and we take her to California and we didn’t have to show the aircraft round.”

After all, collapsing subsequent to a heart specialist isn’t one thing you’ll be able to plan upfront. However Saxon’s story illustrates the worth of being able to run an EKG in case you’re not feeling proper. You do, nevertheless, should then hope your physician or an assistant rapidly sees the studying.

There’s additionally the larger societal query of what to do for individuals who can’t afford costly digital devices or don’t have entry to high quality healthcare.

There aren’t any simple short-term solutions relating to the decades-long shortcomings of the healthcare system. However Saxon believes it’s potential to shake up “conventional drugs” and make better use of obtainable expertise for everybody’s profit, whereas concurrently tackling points of information privateness and business profiteering.

“If we’re going to get the outcomes that we actually need, we have to get to illness earlier and interact sufferers in their very own care and understanding, so we’re going to should do un-traditional issues,” she mentioned, pointing to her watch, which price about $1,000. (Mine price lower than half that quantity.)

“We’re going to have to appreciate,” Saxon mentioned, “that purchasing a $1,000 watch and an iPhone with an information plan is cheaper than one ER go to.”

Wonderful level, however neither logic nor improved well being outcomes drive healthcare policymaking.

Saxon, a swimmer who’s in good well being, gave one other instance of how individuals can use expertise to handle their very own well being. She’s not diabetic, however she has worn a steady glucose monitor patch to check her physique’s response to particular meals.

When consuming bagels and cream cheese, for instance, her glucose spiked to ranges that shocked her.

“That will increase my threat by 5% to 10% of getting diabetes,” she mentioned. “I’ve all the time liked that form of meals, proper? However after I noticed what it was doing to me, I form of don’t crave it anymore.”

Saxon grew to become my heart specialist after my temporary go to to the opposite facet in 2012 instantly following knee substitute surgical procedure. I used to be rapidly resuscitated in post-op, and Saxon mentioned my cardiac arrest was in all probability brought on by a confluence of things associated to ache, anesthesia and my long-standing coronary heart rhythm points.

In lay phrases, cardiac arrest is {an electrical} downside and a coronary heart assault is a plumbing downside, however the two are sometimes related.

“As you grow old, your threat of cardiovascular demise will increase, and the vast majority of cardiac arrests are resulting from a coronary heart assault,” Saxon mentioned. “So one factor you are able to do as you grow old is get screened in your threat of coronary heart illness, hypertension, excessive ldl cholesterol — and get a stress check if indicated. … You’ll care for plenty of threat, and you may push out your dangerous occasion for years and years.”

After which, Saxon mentioned, there’s the apparent. Train, keep a nutritious diet, restrict alcohol, don’t smoke, watch your weight.

Cardiac arrest can strike at any age, and in case you’re with somebody who goes down, what do you have to do?

Effectively, we’re not docs, so we will’t diagnose the reason for the collapse. However we will ensure somebody calls 911, then ensure the particular person’s airways are cleared and start chest compressions. If the issue is cardiac arrest, the CPR can push blood by the physique and hold the particular person alive till skilled assist and defibrillators arrive.

In response to the American Coronary heart Assn., cardiac arrest was an element in additional than 370,000 deaths within the U.S., however Saxon mentioned doing the suitable factor within the first couple of minutes can save a life. And anyone can study the fundamentals of CPR. You possibly can take a look at redcross.org, and the center affiliation additionally has a ton of fine data at cpr.coronary heart.org.

As for my checkup, Saxon ordered up a stress check for me, simply to remain up to the mark. However basically, she mentioned, I’m comparatively wholesome, so this doesn’t determine to be my final Golden State column.

steve.lopez@latimes.com