Experiences: Ian Sprouse

Ian's Cardiology Story

Overcoming the same heart condition that killed his father at age 24, Ian Sprouse is beating the odds thanks to personal commitment - and help from ICD technology and the cardiology team at Martha Jefferson Hospital.

Ian Sprouse grew up as most active boys in Charlottesville do. He played T-ball, shot hoops at Northeast Park, rode bikes. He was evolving into a good baseball player up until the summer between his 10th and 11th grade year at Charlottesville High School. Continue Reading

Ian Sprouse

That's the year when team sports, and all the exercise and conditioning drills necessary to perform at a high level, became off-limits... for the rest of his life.

It was only a matter of time before Ian's heart condition caught up with him. Diagnosed at birth with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), Ian inherited the condition that resulted in his father's death. HCM causes the walls of the heart muscle to thicken, making it harder for the heart to work and can completely block the normal flow of blood out of the heart.

HCM may be best known for its role in cardiac arrest and subsequent death in young athletes. One of the most shocking examples of this type of tragedy occurred in 1990, when NCAA basketball player Hank Gathers, who starred on a Loyola Marymount team that still holds records as one of the top five scoring teams in Division I history, collapsed on the court six minutes into a game immediately after rising above the rim to finish an "alley-oop" dunk. The game was called off, and Gathers was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

Ian was closely monitored through his childhood by pediatric cardiologists at Martha Jefferson Hospital. It was a conversation with Dr. Bill Hammill - during that pivotal summer in between his sophomore and junior years in high school - that led not only to an end to baseball, but also gym class, running, weightlifting and basketball.

He adjusted to a new lifestyle, including an enhanced focus on another competitive hobby that does not involve undue stress on the heart: bowling. Ian had long excelled at the challenge posed by the 41.5-inch wide, 60-foot long lane, and his interest was not an accident. His mother knew that bowling could be a lifelong pursuit for someone diagnosed with HCM, and she had introduced him to duckpins by the age of two.

Lucky to Collapse at the Right Place, Right Time

"I woke up looking at the ceiling with this woman rifling through my pockets." Ian had just collapsed on the tile floor of a local restaurant in Farmville. It was October 2006, and he had spent the entire day walking around the Longwood College campus with friends visiting from Charlottesville. They had stopped by a sandwich shop in the early evening to pick up dinner on the way to a concert when Ian blacked out.

The coincidence that the woman immediately behind them in line was a nurse turned out to be another life-changing event. She was the one searching for his identification when he woke up on the floor of the restaurant.

"I was ready to go to the concert and I was hungry," Ian said about that night. "There was nothing else remarkable about the day. But what Dr. Hammill and my other physicians have always said turned out to be true. My condition is like a white elephant at the door. It can show up at any time. And it did, and I was lucky the way things turned out.

The nurse encouraged him to head straight to the hospital. He did, and when the doctors heard about his condition and the events of the day, they considered airlifting Ian to Charlottesville. Cooler heads prevailed, and soon in the company of his mother, Ian was back at Martha Jefferson. Together, they learned that what was a seemingly simple fainting episode could have easily been a much more serious situation. Ian could have suffered sudden cardiac arrest, just like his father before him.

ICD Technology Provides 24-Hour Protection

Each day, the heart beats more than 100,000 times. For people with HCM or other conditions such as congestive heart failure, high blood pressure or diabetes, a single arrhythmia could trigger sudden cardiac arrest.

Sudden cardiac arrest refers to the type of heart attack not caused by coronary artery disease or a major arterial blockage. Instead of being accompanied by any number of warning signs, victims of sudden cardiac arrest can seem fine one minute, mid-stride on a walk or mid-sentence at the dinner table, and then rendered almost immediately unconscious by the occurrence of heart arrhythmia known as ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia. Survival rates for patients who experience sudden cardiac arrest are anything but encouraging.

When Ian visited Martha Jefferson Hospital following his collapse, his physicians suggested that he take advantage of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). An ICD is a battery-powered device implanted under the skin much like a traditional pacemaker. Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, the computerized ICD constantly monitors the rhythms of the heart through wire leads. The procedure to implant the ICD takes less than two hours and is performed in a specially-equipped Electrophysiology (EP) lab.

If the ICD detects a severe arrhythmia, the device is designed to determine and deliver the appropriate shock therapy to restore a normal rhythm. In addition to serving as an on-call paramedic, 24-hours a day, the device records information about the performance of the heart during abnormal events. Cardiologists can download this record by waving a wand over the patient's chest, providing unprecedented insight about the performance of each patient's heart.

Ian's paternal great-grandmother also has HCM, and also has an ICD. It made the decision easier for Ian. "When I think about what this means to me, I think about my great-grandmother who is 94 and has received a shock from her ICD on four different occasions. She's still alive. That's all I need to know."

Still in Search of a 300 Game

"They said I could do it for the rest of my life. As long as my joints are fine, I'm good to go."

And go he has. Ian has already accomplished a tremendous amount on the lanes, with decades to spare. He has won the singles and doubles crown at the Charlottesville city bowling tournament. He co-founded the Longwood bowling club, and hopes to inspire a new generation of bowlers. Who knows, one day he could go pro.

Ian is just happy to be able to compete in a sport he enjoys, one which takes years and years to master... and which most never do. It's exactly the kind of challenge he lives for.

Ian's story first appeared in the Martha Jefferson Magazine in the Spring 2008 edition.

What is Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy?

HCM affects an estimated 1.5 million - or one in 500 people - throughout the U.S. HCM may be best known for its role in cardiac arrest and subsequent death in some young professional athletes. Ian had exhibited two risk factors for sudden death. His father had died of the same condition when Ian was only 18-months-old, and then he suffered the fainting episode. Doctors get concerned when a young person exhibits two of the following five risk factors:

We follow nearly seven hundred patients in our "device clinic." We call it the device clinic because we see two types of cardiology patients, those with pacemakers and those with ICDs.

Patients are seen in the clinic on a regular basis. Patients who have pacemakers are seen between one and twelve times a year, depending on the age of the pacemaker. These patients are given the option of doing most of their checks over the telephone. Patients with ICDs are seen in the clinic four times a year for routine follow-up. We also see patients outside of routine follow-up for various reasons, such as delivery of defibrillator therapy, or symptoms of dizziness and syncope. These out-of-schedule visits may be done at our outpatient clinic or while the patient is in the emergency room or in the hospital.
Back To Story