Rhiannon Ingle
A new mum shared the one warning sign for cardiac arrest after she was left in a life-threatening condition.
Antiganee Cain-Francis, who was 32 at the time, was only a week into recovering from a C-section delivery back in September 2022 when her health suddently took a turn for the worst.
"Everything was great that week — as great as it could be with a newborn," she told TODAY.com in March of last year.
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"We were just getting used to our routine and her habits."
However, after that weekend the school teacher based in New York City recalled that everything 'started to shift'.
Antiganee stood up to check on her newborn baby girl yet was, all of a sudden, completely overwhelmed by a feeling like 'static' in her body.
She was also unable to see or hear, but managed to scream for her husband, who called her doctor.
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She then rushed to the emergency room at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.
There, in the early hours of the following morning evening, Antiganee took a turn for the worst after going into cardiac arrest.
In the weeks that followed, the new mum ended up being intubated, transferred, and resuscitated again before doctors could finally figure out what was causing such problems with her heart.
Dr. Ramanak Mitra, the specialist who treated Antiganees, and their team recorded her having 'irregular' heart beats and, after three weeks, were eventually able to diagnose her with a condition called idiopathic triggered ventricular fibrillation.
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"There's one particular site in the heart muscle," Mitra told the outlet, "and when it fires, it basically puts the heart into a tailspin."
In order to treat the mum, the doctor used a technique known as pace mapping to locate the source of the irregular heartbeat.
Mitra placed a tiny catheter into Antiganee's heart and cauterised the problem area leading her to miraculously 'pass with flying colours' when she was evaluated following the procedure.
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Now, in a few cases, doctors are able to find a genetic mutation underlying the condition, but cases like Antiganee's sadly do not have a clear cause.
The outlet reported that an MRI later confirmed the mum did not have any
structural abnormalities or inflammation in her heart.
She later returned home to her newborn in the first week of October with a defibrillator newly implanted under her skin and, just a few months later in December, she said she finally felt like herself again.
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"That was the first time I drove somewhere by myself; it was just to Home Goods or something," she recalled, adding that the experience taught her some valuable lessons.
Firstly, to not 'sweat the small stuff' anymore, and, secondly, that it's OK to l'ean on your community'.
She added: "It was really a lot to adapt to, especially because I've just always been so independent.
"This really had me take a step back and just realize that it's OK to need help. And when people are offering it, it's OK to accept it — it doesn't mean that I'm lacking in anything."
The condition - which is very rare in someone of Antiganee's age - means the heart beats irregularly without any given cause - IE. there's no heart condition identified or structural problem.
Experts believe the condition originates in the heart's Purkinje fibers which send special signals to the heart to control its pumping muscles.