Danny Williams

Danny Williams was a healthy, active 14-year old and a good athlete, good enough to start on his high school basketball team as an eighth grader. But one evening while walking to the bus after a basketball game, he collapsed. Danny was rushed to the local emergency room. Doctors there diagnosed Danny's problem as Long QT syndrome, a malfunction in the heart's electrical system which can cause sudden death. He was treated with medication and allowed to continue playing sports.

Three years later, during a basketball scrimmage, Danny had another frightening episode. He lost strength and tried to signal to the coach that he wanted to sit down, but he was unable to speak clearly.

"I couldn't say what I was thinking," says Danny. "They asked me my name and where I was; I knew the answers, but all that came out of my mouth was Saint Clair (Danny's hometown)."

That evening, Danny was taken to the emergency room at Immanuel St. Joseph's Hospital in Mankato, Minn. for examination and a CT scan. The results revealed nothing unusual, and Danny was granted permission to continue playing basketball. After the season, Danny returned to the hospital for further testing. An MRI scan showed the surprising result that Danny had, in fact, suffered a stroke the night of the scrimmage.

"It was a very scary diagnosis," says Danny. "It isn't normal for a 17-year-old to have a stroke."

The stroke finding led his Mankato doctors to send Danny to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for further testing. Cardiologists at Mayo determined that the cause of Danny's problems was a hole in his heart (a patent foramen ovale). A patent foramen ovale is an opening (flap) in the wall of the heart which does not close completely after birth. The flap allows blood to cross from the right (venous) side to the left (arterial) side of the circulation, bypassing the normal route through the lungs. This allows clots to more easily move to the brain, causing a stroke. (See information about ostium secundum atrial septal defect.)

Mayo Clinic cardiologist, Donald Hagler, M.D., closed the hole in Danny's heart using a simple catheter procedure. That took care of the stroke problem. However, there was still the question of the Long QT syndrome diagnosis. That could not be ruled out until his three-month checkup for his procedure results. Until then, Danny's future in sports was in jeopardy.

"I don't get nervous very often," says Danny. "The waiting period before my three-month checkup was the first time I had felt nervous since I started in my first varsity basketball game in eighth grade."

Three months later, following X-rays, an ECG and a heart ultrasound, cardiologist, Michael Ackerman, M.D., told Danny that the hole in his heart was fixed and that he did not have Long QT syndrome.

"I did a skip in the hall after I left Dr. Ackerman's office," says Danny.

Danny is now attending Minnesota State University, Mankato, where he hopes to play football.