CANTON, Ohio — More than one million people in the United States deal with ‘frequent fainting,’ also known as vasovagal syncope. It is a condition that doesn’t come with many options for a cure, but Akron Children’s Hospital is one of only a small group hospitals throughout the country that offer a surgical treatment.
Vasovagal syncope can be debilitating for people dealing with it. It is diagnosed when there’s a sudden drop in heart rate and blood pressure, which causes fainting.
Hannah Grable, 28, of Canton has vasovagal syncope.
“Four times a day I would faint and when I say faint, I mean to the floor,” she said.
She was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome at a young age. It’s a vascular syndrome that comes that can bring with it other co-morbidities including postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, and vasovagal syncope; both affect the body’s heart rate.
They can be worsened when the body is fighting a virus.
“I started passing out when I was around 10 years old,” she said. “But it wasn’t frequent until after I caught COVID and my son was 4 months old.”
The mom of two caught COVID around June of 2022, and her life changed soon after.
“I couldn’t pick up my kids because I was afraid I’d pass out and drop them. I couldn’t shower on my own. I couldn’t go up the stairs because sometimes the exertion of going up the stairs would make me pass out,” she recalled.
She was wheelchair-bound and searching for answers from medical professionals. She said doctors told her to increase her salt and fluid intake, that it was stress and anxiety.
“You can be told by 10 doctors that you’re crazy. That this is in your head, but that 11th doctor will believe you. You have to be your own advocate,” said Grable.
It wasn’t until medical professionals put a heart recording device in her that they discovered her heart rate was irregular.
She met with Dr. John Clark shortly after the discovery. Dr. Clark is the medical director of the pediatric arrhythmia center at Akron Children’s Hospital.
“The typical patient who ends up in my office for this is the patient who has failed every therapy, is on multiple medications, and really wants to get their life back,” he said.
Dr. Clark offers something many other doctors can’t: a treatment that may stop the fainting. He performs cardioneuroablation to correct irregular heart rhythms.
He said the procedure is a type of catheter ablation, and has been FDA-approved for decades for patients whose heart beats too fast, but what’s new is to use it for patients whose heart beats too slow.
“The patient population that could benefit from it are patients who pass out frequently or patients who have an intermittent need for a pacemaker,” said Dr. Clark.
And while it is not yet FDA-approved for that patient population, it can be performed on a case-by-case basis. In Grable’s case, he agreed she needed it.
“People don't realize this is a therapeutic option. It has not been a therapeutic option until the last couple of years in the United States, it's been done outside of the United States for 20, 25 years, but it's only just now making its way into the US,” he said.
He noted in 80% of cases outside of the United States, patients who underwent cardioneroablation are still without passing out five years later.
Dr. Clark performed the surgery on Grable in December.
“When you have complex medical issues, it’s about giving yourself these small tools to get yourself where you need to be, and this surgery was a tool. I think the biggest tool,” she said.
She has not passed out since she underwent surgery.
“I can stand and hold my kids, and I don’t get the awful feeling you get before you pass out, you know, the ringing in your ears, your vision going out,” she said. “You don’t realize how much autonomy you have until you become sick, and it’s taken away, and he gave me that life back. The opportunity to live.”
Dr. Clark is hopeful that as the FDA receives more research that it will be approved as the first line of treatment for patients dealing with vasovagal syncope.
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