My story started Thursday, October 4 at 9:00 pm in the evening.  I was working as an on call paramedic.  My husband and I were having tea with a couple of others. It hadn't been very busy for me, only one call. My husband said to me, "you should stay at the station tonight"

Surprised at his statement I asked why? He replied, “How would you feel if something happened to someone in your family and you weren't there for them”?   I thought about it and agreed to stay at the station. My response to a call would be about 10 minutes quicker that way.  The next call came at around 4:30 am my partner and I were called out code three for a possible cardiac arrest.  On the way our dispatcher informed us that CPR was in progress. I was driving and heading for the address the dispatcher had given us. I was thinking it was by my sisters house never thinking for a moment that it was my sisters house.

It wasn't till we were on the street approaching the address when the cold shock of reality sunk in.  My next thought was who, who was in cardiac arrest?   Then I saw my brother in-law in the doorway holding the baby. I instantly knew it was for my sister.

I raced into the house to find my sister laying pulse less on the floor and two RCMP officers doing CPR. My partner and I quickly defibrillated my sister twice before we got a pulse back.  Not wanting to waste precious moments, I did not wait for a back up crew to relieve me.  We loaded my sister into the ambulance and I drove with lights and sirens back to the hospital while my partner worked on my sister in the back of the ambulance.

At the hospital I was relieved of my duties for the evening so I could be with my family.  We were all in   shock, my sister was a healthy 29 year old who had just suffered a cardiac arrest in her sleep.  My brother in-law had woke up and initiated CPR before calling 911.  So   many strange   occurrences.  So many miracles.   It would take a few days for it all to sink in.

My sister spent the next three months in hospital with her husband at her side while both sets of grandparents cared for the three children.   During her hospital stay my sister was given a pacemaker and put on a beta blocker called Atenolol. She was sent home with a diagnosis of Long QT Syndrome.  My sister suffered from memory loss and struggled for months, maybe even years to regain her life.

The family was told it was a hereditary congenital condition and we all needed to be tested with an ECG.  Some of us were tested, but the tests came back normal.  None of us seemed to really understand or know too much about the syndrome and were happy to except the fact that we did not have it.

Seven years passed quickly, my sister had regained her life and was working and doing well.  She seemed to be her old self and we had all settled back into life like nothing had ever happened, until the morning of November 12 the phone rang, it was my mother, she said my 11 yr old niece had called her and said hermother, my sister was on the floor not breathing.  My mother had called the ambulance and then me. I felt numb, it was 5:30am, I jumped out of bed threw on a long coat and a pair of shoes and raced out the door yelling at my husband as I went out the door.

My sister only lives a few blocks from me so it did not take long to get there.  I walked in the house and found my sister. I quickly realized there was nothing that could be done for her, she had suffered another cardiac arrest, this time it was fatal.

It was very hard for me to tell my niece and 6 year old nephew that there was nothing I could do for their mother.After my sister died my cousin contacted me and asked me what my sister had died from. I told her it was LONG QT SYNDROME.  She told me she was worried that she may have the same thing. I told her to get an ECG done if she was worried about it. She did and the test came back positive.  She contacted me with new information, saying her doctor recommended we all be tested again because in some cases an ECG was not good enough to make a diagnosis.

On January 12, 2001 exactly two months after my sisters death I was diagnosed with LQT after my doctor reviewed a treadmill stress test he had given me. He immediately put me on a beta blocker and made an appointment for me to see an Electrophysiologist for further testing which I am still waiting for.

I never realised how alone my sister must have felt, until my own diagnoses.  I was much luckier than she, I found a group of wonderful people on the internet hat all have LQT, With their knowledge and understanding I came to accept my diagnosis and realise that there was life after LQT even though there are no certainties.

By Belinda.