A 35-YEAR-old teacher and mum-of-one has spoken of living with a heart rhythm condition that means she has to take tablets for the rest of her life.
Vikki Arthur, from Rastrick, had her first episode of atrial fibrillation (AF) in 2020.
The condition puts her at an increased risk of having a stroke with the most common symptoms being palpitations, breathlessness and dizziness.
Vikki said: “My diagnosis came out of the blue. Up until then I just considered myself to be a normal, healthy and fit person.
"It was a Saturday, and I was getting ready to go and do my weekly shopping when my heart just felt really strange.
“It felt like it was ‘trapped’ for a few seconds, like it wanted to beat and it couldn’t, and then my heart was just beating like crazy. I felt really lightheaded and had to sit down and then I started getting pain in my jaw and was terrified that I might be having a heart attack. I genuinely thought I was dying.”
Vikki ended up in A&E and after an ECG, a doctor explained she was having an AF episode. She was given beta blockers to bring her heart rate back down.
Vikki, who is mum to Aniah-Rose, seven, said: “I was told that it would never go away but they couldn’t predict how many episodes I’d have, how frequent or how bad they’d be.”
After her first episode, Vikki had several smaller episodes, followed by another larger one in January 2022.
That summer she fell pregnant but in September she experienced another AF episode which left her in hospital for three days.
“It was the worst I’ve had,” said Vikki. “That episode lasted 36 hours before I reset and I was told I’d need to take beta blockers every day.”
Tragically, Vikki started bleeding while at hospital, later receiving confirmation she had suffered a miscarriage.
She said the last six months had been really tough and that she “struggled to come to terms with having to take tablets every day for the rest of my life”.
“But my life is far from over. I just have to adapt and live it in a different way but make the most out of every day,” she added.
Vikki is speaking out as part of a British Heart Foundation campaign, with new figures showing there are 49,000 people diagnosed with the same condition in West Yorkshire alone.
The BHF campaign calls on the public to support research into heart and circulatory diseases - bhf.org.uk/this-is-science.
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