And then Kara collapsed. And then we realized that she had Long QT syndrome. And then we realized that it was a genetic problem and that she should never have children. One day, Kara and I were sit- ting on the sofa together watching a show about babies and I said to her, in a tentative manner, not knowing what response I would receive, “Kara, do you know that you should never have children.” “Yes,” she said, “I know.” “Do you know why?” I asked her. “Yes,” she said, “because my defibrillator will hurt them.” “No,” I said, “it is not because of your defibrillator. It is because they will inherit the same heart problem that you have. Does that make you feel bad?” “No,” she said with her sweet smile, “I will just have a family the same as Kate’s.” So, that is the final story I will leave with you. That is the story that will tell you that we are all going to be just fine. And so my letter to Kara will also echo the words of Celine Dion from her song “Fly.” It will say simply: Dear Kara, Fly, fly, Little Wing Fly beyond imagining Love, Mom ### Maryann (and Tom) Anglim may be contacted by email: Thomas.Anglim@comcast.net ###
Bibliography
From CHAPTER 2- Shocks: The management of cardiac arrest and the outcome of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in situations like Kara’s are reviewed in the following chapter: Myerburg RJ, Castellanos A: Chapter 26. “Cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death.” In Braunwald E, editor, Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine 1992, Fourth edition, W.B. Saunders Co. Philadelphia. From CHAPTER 5- A Doctor’s Impressions: The best clinical information available for predicting outcome in patients with coma lasting at least six hours following cardiac arrest, is found in: Levy DE, Caronna JJ, Singer BH, Lapinski RH, Frydman H, Plum F: Predicting outcome from hypoxic-ischemic coma. JAMA 1985;253:1420-1426. From CHAPTER 10- Kara’s Medical History: This report was part of the information I subsequently found in learning about