person’s character and, ...decide whether or not you want them in your life at all. Mostly I think an appropriate first reaction is to think that you don’t. But in a while it may strike you as a small miracle that you have someone in your life, whose taste you admire, ...who will tell you the truth and help you stay on the straight and narrow, or find your way back to it if you are lost.” So, thank you to Sue Poulin, Marilyn Collins, Lizzie Van Orden, Janet Van Orden, Lynn Baker, Ann Allan, Tom Anglim, Peter Goldfine, Doug Dransfield and Mary Alice Walter. Your critiques and whole-hearted support encouraged us to continue our writing and not stop until our story was told. Thanks also to Doug Dransfield for the technological assistance and help with the computerized drawings. You added to the artistic and professional look of the book. Janice Wright captured the essence of Kara’s story in her quilt design on the cover of Kara Mia. Thank you very much for all the love and hard work that went into it. We look forward to the day when the quilt design becomes a real quilt. Thank you to Larry Gorton for the photographic assistance. Also thanks to Diane (Disey) Roussel, R.N. for taking the Christmas photos of Kara on Pediatrics. Thank you to Joan MacCracken, M.D., author of The Sun, The Rain and The Insulin, who willingly shared her experiences and knowledge with us. Thank you to Medtronic, Inc., not only for having the technologic ability to manufacture implantable cardiac defibrillators, but also for your financial support of our book. Thank you, also, to Jim Winner, our Medtronic representative, for his technical knowledge, for seeing Kara the day of her surgery, and the help with our book. Thank you to Maine Medical Center for your financial sup- port of Kara Mia and for the special brand of care that healed Kara and our family. The people of Maine are fortunate to have your skilled staff available to them. Thank you to Dr. Michael Vincent for helping a pediatric neurologist and an operating room nurse learn about Long QT syndrome. Thank you for writing the foreword to our book. We join you in your hope of expanding the knowledge of Long QT syndrome.
Foreword (for the first edition) A hymn states, “When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” While Kara Mia is a tale of tragedy wrought by the Long QT syndrome, it is also a beautiful story of courage, strength, and faith, and the ability of the human spirit to rise above and grow from the challenges and hurdles which are placed into the lives of many of us. Kara Mia’s story is common in the Long QT syndrome—a completely unexpected cardiac arrest or sudden death, or unexplained loss of consciousness (syncope), in an apparently healthy young person. Once thought to be rare, the syndrome is now recognized as a common cause of these events. The disorder is due to mutations in genes which control the electrical activity of the heart. Affected persons are predisposed