One night I ws watching TV in my mom's room while everyone was watching something else in the living room. My sister asked me to come in the other room to talk to her friends brother (who I liked at the time). So I got up and walked in the other room. As I knelt down beside her on the floor, I got dizzy. The next thing I know I'm lying in the chair that is on the floor and my sister is trying to get me to move or to speak. I can hear her and the TV. I thought I was moving, but after a while I realised that I couldn't! Then my parents came over to me. I started to throw up. I couldn't even hold my head up. My mom held it up for me. I had also urinated on myself.

The first hospital my pediatrician sent me to (the closest to my house) told me nothing was wrong. I was in the hospital 3 days while they did tests. They didn't find anything.

The day after I got out of the hospital, my pediatrician Dr. Nelken looked at my EKG himeslf and found something. I was admitted into Children's Hospital. I was diagnosed immediatly with a heart disease called long QT syndrome. That is when the electrical part of your heart doesn't work right. It can make your heart beat way too fast.

Most people's hearts beat about 72 beats a minute. Mine beats around 38 or 40. That is called bradycardia.

So a few days later they put my pacemaker in. It helps to regulate my heart normally.

I guess I should be thankful that this episode happened when everyone was home instead of my being somewhere else. I should especially be thankful that my sister Katie was there to realise that something was wrong.

Jessica Doyle