29 June 2017
The Trust’s ninth arrhythmia patient event was held on 4 June at Royal Brompton Hospital, led by Dr Sabine Ernst, consultant in cardiac electrophysiology.
This event takes place during World Heart Rhythm Week and was as popular as ever with a large number of patients and family members taking part.
The event was a great opportunity for participants to find out about new treatment technologies, ask questions about the heart rhythm conditions they may be living with and share their experiences with other patients. The latter was given a spotlight this year with a patient invited to talk about his personal experience of catheter ablation and share what helped him most on his road to recovery.
Talks also included the use of pacemakers for slow heart rhythm and catheter ablations in fast heart rhythm. There was also a talk on the important role that patients play - helping researchers at the Trust develop and design their studies.
Event participant, David Lillicrap, said: "It was astonishing to hear about the new devices now available to treat heart rhythm problems – particularly implantable “leadless” pacemakers that can be placed in the body without opening the chest. Sharing experiences are really helpful and show the huge range of heart rhythm symptoms that people can suffer with.”
This year's World Heart Rhythm Week was dedicated to Sir Roger Moore who died in 2017 following his collapse on stage from bradycardia – a slow heartbeat. He was active in promoting pulse checking with the heart rhythm charity Arrhythmia Alliance.