Long QT Syndrome:

For those who suffer from it, Long QT Syndrome is a time bomb in their chest. It is increasingly common - but most doctors seem unaware of its existence and it often strikes without warning, killing young people in the full bloom of youth.

Experts are unsure exactly how many people die from Long QT in Australia every year. Estimates range from 20 to 230. In America up to 4,000 people may die annually.
The syndrome gets its name from the distinctive 'signature' or shape of the wave - an unusually long interval between the 'Q' and 'T' wave points - shown on an electrocardiogram or heart monitor. This shows how long it takes for the heart to return to 'normal' after contracting and pumping blood through the body.

Physical exercise, emotional shock or surprise - even an alarm clock going off - may trigger a fast, irregular and lethal heartbeat.

When this happens, no blood is pumped out from the heart and the brain is deprived of blood causing sudden loss of consciousness and death.

Often the only warning signs are fainting or unexplained collapses - symptoms easily misdiagnosed especially by doctors who may not even be ready to consider it.
Mostly an inherited condition - several members of a family will often be found to carry Long QT.

One Melbourne couple, David and Yvonne Jones lived for years not knowing why their apparently healthy teenage daughter Chelsea died while competing in an equestrian event.
Only when their younger daughter Felicity began fainting soon afterwards - and after enduring unsympathetic treatment from doctors - did an ambulance heart monitor reveal she had Long QT Syndrome - the likely cause of Chelsea's death.
Felicity is now fitted with a defibrillator - a implanted device which will restart her heart if it ever stops.

Another Melbourne family Lloyd and Julie Foley who had to cope with fears over their children who were collapsing without warning and a less than sympathetic reception from the medical profession.
Thanks to the persistence of their mother Julie, the children were eventually given ECG tests. The results vindicated her concerns.
Three of the five Foley children have pacemakers fitted. Four now take beta blocker drugs to regulate their heartbeats - which they will need to take for the rest of their lives