Brandon: There is a spot on Encinitas Beach that has these stairs.
If I go down to the bottom, I can't walk back up those stairs.
I have a bionic, you know, thing controlling my heart.
I guess it's more credible or trustable than my own heart.
I started to feel my pulse.
Instead of like dnn…dnn…dnn… it's like dnn…dndndndndn…
Lisa, Brandon's Mom: And he said, "I feel like my heart's skipping a beat and then my
body's having to, like, make up for it."
And he could feel that happening in his chest.
Brandon: And I opened the door, you know, with my last breath, you know, "Mom, Dad,
something's wrong."
Donnell, Brandon's Dad: He says, "Dad, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming."
It revs (imitates revving sound), you can hear it revving.
Lisa: I can hear Brandon moaning in the background.
Donnell: When it hits him, you, not only do you see it, you hear it.
It goes like chh-chnnnn!
Lisa: I knew we were in trouble.
Donnell: He said “it’s coming again!
It’s coming again!”
Brandon: Boom!
And, and I feel my body lift up off the bed and move, you know, a couple feet to the left
and then you fall back on the bed.
Donnell: It was like one of the most gut-wrenching things I'd ever seen.
Because I… (cries) I was five seconds from getting dressed to go to work.
Brandon: I'm getting shocked by this thing.
I'm having this crash course in death.
Lisa: They've made it very clear to us that this device has saved his life five times
now.
Dr. Robert Gillespie, Cardiologist: Brandon at the age of eight was diagnosed with a condition
called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Brandon: Which pretty much means no football.
But...(laughs) that's all it meant to me at that, at that time.
Dr. Gillespie: Let's take a listen.
His condition has led to an abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation.
Dr. Charles Athill, Cardiac Electrophysiologist: Unfortunately for Brandon, this has caused
him to receive shocks from his defibrillator which was put in to treat life-threatening
arrhythmias from the bottom part of his heart.
Brandon: During this whole thing I've thought about dying every day, you know.
Lisa: This isn't something as a parent that you should have to think about with your 20-year-old.
I never know when it's going to be our last day with him.
Dr. Athill: Brandon is about to undergo a procedure called catheter ablation where we
burn the electric tissue that’s causing to have atrial fibrillation.
This may be one in a series of procedures that he undergoes over the next three months.
Lisa: All right, I love you buddy.
I just want him to be a normal kid.
Go out with your friends, go to the movies, just do normal things.
And I feel like a lot of that's been robbed from him.
Brandon: When's the next time I'm gonna go into a-fib?
When's the next time it's gonna shock me?
Male Voice: Good luck to you buddy.
Brandon: Thank you.
Am I going to survive through tonight?
What happens if it has to keep shocking me over and over and over again?
Dr. Gillespie: Our heart is governed by electrical current.
Dr. Athill: We're able to go into the heart in a minimally invasive way and zap these
abnormal electrical connections.
25 watts, please.
Previous to this type of procedure, the patient would have to go for open heart surgery.
We're able to now do it just by the introduction of a catheter into the groin.
Male Voice: (unintelligible)
Female Voice: Coming back on 30 watts.
Dana Gugino, Nurse Practitioner, Cardiac Catherization Lab: The red dots represent that that tissue
is burnt, it's ablated, it should be dead.
And the goal is to connect all of those red dots in a circle around the veins.
Any sort of firing or electrical activity that happens inside the pulmonary veins will
not conduct back into the left atrium.
Dr. Athill: Because this is not open heart surgery, Brandon will be able to leave the
hospital tomorrow and his recovery time will be significantly less.
Lisa: It's honestly been the hardest year of our life.
I can't imagine my life without him.
And that's what's been hard, is I have to think about that.
(cries)
Brandon: I see that pain in her, so I try my hardest to, like, if I can get a breath,
make a joke, if I can breathe I'm gonna make a joke about it.
Jessica Rozok, RN: Sound like a plan?
Brandon: I think you guys mixed up the modeling class with the nursing class.
(Laughter)
Jessica: When you get a patient like Brandon that is so sweet and that, you know is going
through something so difficult, it's great that everything has gone so well, especially
after the year he's had, it really does make me love what I do.
Your blood pressure's doing great, buddy.
How you feeling, though?
Brandon: I'm feeling like we only have like 30 minutes before you go.
Jessica: It's very true, but I'll be back in the morning, 7 am.
Brandon: It's a date.
Jessica: All right.
Lisa: Everything was going great for about two months.
A week or two ago I got a phone call at work and it was a student at Mira Costa saying
the ambulance was called to come pick him up.
Brandon: I've been having a-fib again.
Was it three times?
Lisa: Yes.
Dr. Gillespie: This is a common occurrence.
The electrical pathways can reconnect and require a second procedure.
Brandon: Bring it here, bring it here.
Female Nurse: How, I'd say it's good to see you.
It is good to see you but it's, you know…
Brandon: It's hard, it's hard because I love all these people but I never want to see you
guys again.
Female Nurse: I know.
Dr. Gillespie: He rolls with the punches.
He may get knocked down from time to time, he gets up and he keeps moving.
Brandon: Let's go.
Male Voice: Hey Brandon…
Female Voice: Happy Birthday!
Look at what you're doing on your 21st birthday!
Dr. Gillespie: He has such a big heart in so many different ways.
Dana: So we just induced an arrhythmia.
Dr. Athill: When someone goes into atrial fibrillation, the top chamber of the heart
can beat anywhere from 400 to 600 beats per minute.
OK.
Go on.
Male Voice: 36, 36 6…
Dr. Athill: Off.
Dr. Gillespie: All's good as it relates to atrial fibrillation today.
We still have our challenges ahead of us.
We're optimistic but at the same time realistic that this is a lifelong battle that he and
I will have to deal with.
Dr. Gillespie: Things went well.
Brandon: Yeah?
Dr. Gillespie: Got the a-fib.
Brandon: I have learned a heavy lesson through all of this - even in times of hardship, you
can't focus on death so much, you have to just live your life while you have it.
I'm looking forward to stability, I'm looking forward to a weight off my shoulders, I don't
have to worry as much about, is tomorrow gonna come for me.
Life is good.