Like Rain on Parked Cars, Chapter 13 – The Good Heart

Anterior view of human heart, Source/Author Patrick Lynch, medical illustrator (CC BY-SA 2.5 Generic)

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil” (Luke 6: 45).

Not many are familiar with Wolf-Parkinson-White Syndrome.  It is a heart rhythm disorder, effecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US population.

In a normal heart, electrical signals use a single pathway as they move through the heart from its upper to lower chambers.  In Wolf-Parkinson-White Syndrome, one or more additional, abnormal pathways exist between the upper chambers (“atria”) and lower chambers (“ventricles”) of the heart, causing the electrical signal to reach the ventricles too soon and be routed back into the atria.  Very fast heart rates can develop as the electrical signal ricochets back and forth.

Patients with Wolf-Parkinson-White Syndrome may experience heart palpitations, dizziness, and fainting.  The syndrome can lead to cardiac arrest, even death.

Aretha first began experiencing symptoms around age eleven.  Her heart would flutter, beating faster and faster, till she had difficulty catching her breath.

Aretha reported these symptoms, but they were initially dismissed, then variously attributed to over-exertion, high blood pressure, and stress.

Since her symptoms persisted, there were several electrocardiograms performed over the years.  These were read as normal, though extra electrical pathways should have been visible on EKG.  This is not surprising, since poverty is directly correlated with poor health outcomes [1].

Finally, after Aretha had fainted repeatedly in high school, the disorder was diagnosed.  When medication did not relieve her rapid heartbeat, Aretha was scheduled for surgery.  A flexible tube would be guided into place in her heart, and portions of tissue destroyed by radio frequency, eliminating the abnormal electrical pathways.

Aretha did not place great faith in this surgery.  She had been told it would correct her condition.  But Aretha had been so often unheard or disbelieved – and so often misdiagnosed – that the surgery seemed just another venture.

I was terrified.  This was no small thing.  Not in direct contact with Aretha’s physicians, I researched the subject, in an effort to ease my fears.  Aretha, herself, was stoic.

I was to drive Aretha home on her release.  Anxious to learn how the surgery had gone, I walked through the hospital corridors toward her room with my own heart pounding.  Aretha was upbeat, glad that the procedure was over.  Thankfully, things had gone well.  I could breathe again.

Aretha had such a generous heart, it seemed a bad joke that she should suffer from an irregular heart rhythm.

Aretha used money she had borrowed to further her education instead to purchase a car for her older sister.  Once she had a car of her own, Aretha several times drove over ten hours, across three states, in a fruitless effort to reconnect with another sister who had severed ties with the family years earlier.

These were not always wise decisions on Aretha’s part.  They were always, however, loving.

Aretha, also, possessed a strong moral sense.  She would not have stolen a dollar from me.  How she acquired this moral compass, I cannot say.  Aretha, herself, could not have said, since she had suppressed much of her childhood.

Sometime after the surgery, and after the birth of her son, Aretha told me she had changed her mind about becoming a lawyer.  I thought, at first, she had given up on her dream.  But I was wrong.

“I wanna be a psychiatrist,” Aretha said.  “I wanna help people un’erstan’ why they do the thin’s they do.  There’s an ol’ buildin’ I pass, a big place, that used ta be a mental hospital.  It’s jus’ shut down now…the windows all broke’.  But the patients go there anyhow.  They don’ have any other place ta go [2].  For them it’s home.  I wanna open that place up again, an’ find a way to help them.”

This was my girl.

—

[1]  National Health Council, “Limited Access:  Poverty and Barriers to Accessible Health Care” by Lillian Witting MPH, 1/20/23, https://nationalhealthcouncil.org/blog/limited-access-poverty-and-barriers-to-accessible-health-care/.

[2]  North Carolina Community Action Association (NCCAA), “Access to Healthcare and Mental Health Services Is Limited When You Live in Poverty”, 6/12/20 (updated 3/30/22), https://www.nccaa.net/post/access-to-healthcare-and-mental-health-services-is-limited-when-you-live-in-poverty.

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