Young dad survives cardiac arrest to find a surprise waiting for him

Self-described gambler Donnie Yavelak knew he was taking a risk when he put off a heart procedure, but he thought it was a small one. His wife was about to have a baby, and the first-time father from Ridgeville, South Carolina, wanted to wait until after their son was born. 

"When they told me about my condition, WPW, they did a bunch of tests and said you've got less than a one percent chance of going into v-fib or a-fib or having cardiac arrest and dying of this in a year," Yavelak said. WPW, or Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, is a heart rhythm disorder that affects between one and three out of 1,000 people.

But on December 19, as his wife watched in horror, the 28-year-old man went into cardiac arrest in the parking lot of her obstetrician's office right before her 40-week appointment. Cardiac arrest, which means the heart suddenly stops working because its electrical system malfunctions, strikes without warning and is a leading cause of death in the U.S. Fortunately, in Yavelak's case, help arrived quickly and he was rushed to a nearby hospital. 

He doesn't remember any of it. "It was like going to sleep."

The next week was anything but restful for his wife. As doctors cooled Yavelak's body, a process called therapeutic hypothermia that can improve the chance of survival and reduce the risk of brain damage after cardiac arrest, she went into labor. Their son Levi was born December 22. His father was still sedated, facing new complications, and Yavelak's doctors reached a decision.

"I developed pneumonia and a secondary infection in my lungs, and that's when they transferred me to MUSC where they have more horsepower," he said.

MUSC Health has a team specializing in cutting-edge techniques that give people the best shot at a full recovery from cardiac arrest.  Cardiologist Michael Gold said in Yavelak's case, they decided to prolong the cooling process while they treated his infections. Yavelak remained sedated and on a ventilator to help him breathe.

Finally, five days after he went into cardiac arrest and two days after the birth of his son, his wife got the Christmas Eve gift she'd been hoping for. Yavelak regained consciousness. It was clear that she and the baby had never been far from his mind, even under sedation.

"My first words were, 'I don't know how my wife talked me into it, but I delivered that baby for her,'" Yavelak said, laughing. "I was so delirious and incoherent that I thought that I had delivered the baby. They got a kick out of that."

He had to wait until he got out of intensive care to see Levi, 36 hours in which he got his thoughts together and got ready to meet his baby boy. Then, he finally got to hold Levi, who at one point had been placed on his father's chest while Yavelak was unconscious. "Words just can't express how great it was to see him," Yavelak said. "Our first child."

Dr. Michael Gold gave Yavelak the newest type of defibrillator to shock his heart if he goes into cardiac arrest again.

While Yavelak and his family marveled at what had happened, Gold and his team worked to give him the best odds for a healthy future. First, they took care of Yavelak's WPW. "He had an extra piece of tissue connecting the top and bottom part of the heart. We have a technique called ablation where we burn those spots, and we actually got rid of that extra piece of tissue," Gold said. "So we cured him of the WPW."

But they didn't stop there, because they weren't convinced that WPW caused his cardiac arrest. Gold implanted a subcutaneous defibrillator that monitors Yavelak's heart and shocks it if he goes back into cardiac arrest. 

"It's new technology, the newest type of defibrillator, so we don't have to go into the blood stream, which makes it safer," Gold said. "And it's technology that we helped develop here at MUSC. We did the first implants of that in South Carolina and one of the first in the United States."

American Heart Month

Almost two months after Yavelak's near-death experience, he's enjoying fatherhood and he's back on the job as a construction project manager. He and Gold are also hoping Yavelak's close call can remind other people of the importance of taking care of themselves. February is American Heart Month, a time to focus on heart health. 

"If there's that known condition out there, it's still a percentage that it could happen in anybody's case. Get it taken care of," Yavelak said. And even if you haven't been diagnosed with a heart problem, he said, don't take good health for granted. "Get regular physicals and checkups."

Gold, who is president of the international Heart Rhythm Society, said people need to take symptoms seriously. "When patients have racing hearts and blackout spells, those can be warning signs of a serious heart problem. Patients need to be aware, and physicians need to know to find a specialist."

And make sure those specialists are up to speed on the latest treatments. "So many patients don't get devices that could save their lives," Gold said. He said the list of options is growing, including ablation, which burns or freezes tissue to treat atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia; resynchronization therapy, which uses a pacemaker to improve the function of the heart; and leadless pacemakers, which don't need surgical pockets or insulated wires.

That third option is about to become available at MUSC Health. "We're going to start implanting leadless pacemakers here as the first center in the state," Gold said. "We can put miniaturized pacemakers directly into the heart through a catheter, so there are no scars, no leads, no nothing. It's very cool technology."

The future

Yavelak is now a patient of cardiologist David Gregg, a doctor who specializes in caring for people born with heart problems. Yavelak likes the fact that multiple doctors have worked with him, including the time he was hospitalized after his cardiac arrest. 

"The one thing I'll say about MUSC that I've never gotten at another hospital is the collaborative approach they deliver is amazing. I had multiple doctors collaborating on a condition and an idea as opposed to one doctor more or less having your fate in his hands."

Yavelak's son appears to have escaped the heart problems that have plagued his dad. Levi is happy and healthy. "He's great. He's growing fast," Yavelak said.