Matthew Pittman

Sixteen-year-old Matthew Pittman was devastated when his doctors told him he might never play sports again. The teenage athlete, from Smyer, Texas USA, was passionate about football and basketball. But recently, Matthew had noticed his heart beating faster and harder than usual, and his mother insisted he visit the doctor.

After an EKG showed significant abnormalities, Matthew was referred to Mindee Flippin, MD, a pediatric cardiologist/electrophysiologist at Covenant Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas USA. Dr. Flippin discovered that Matthew had Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) Syndrome, an extra electrical connection in the heart that can cause very fast heart rhythms and—in some cases—sudden cardiac death. Until Matthew's condition was resolved, playing sports would be too risky for him.

Matthew was faced with a choice: He could either take medicine for the rest of his life or be treated by catheter ablation, a procedure where a catheter is threaded into the heart to eliminate the abnormal electrical pathway with radio frequency energy. Once Matthew decided on ablation, Dr. Flippin used a St. Jude Medical Livewire TC™ ablation catheter and a Swartz™ Braided Transseptal Guiding Introducer to find and destroy the abnormal area in Matthew's heart.

"The pathway was located in a difficult place to reach," says Dr. Flippin. "The catheter and sheath that we used were just the right ones to find the area and successfully ablate the cardiac tissue."

Since the procedure, Matthew has experienced no further heart problems and was cleared to return to the sports he loves. He has started the basketball season with his high school team, the Smyer Bobcats, and looks forward to actively participating in other sports and activities.

"I'm glad I chose the ablation, because it only affected two weeks of my life," says Matthew. "I'm happy we have this technology. It changed my life and now it seems like nothing was ever wrong."

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