Guy's story

In April 2021, Guy had a sudden cardiac arrest while playing golf with one of his best friends. They had almost made it round the whole course when tragedy struck.

Luckily, physio Aaron was playing nearby and immediately knew something was wrong. He asked bystanders to locate a defibrillator and call 999, while he started CPR. Guy was rushed to hospital and put in an induced coma — but survived. There, he was later fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) — a device that shocks his heart into a normal rhythm if it goes into cardiac arrest.

Since then, he’s also been diagnosed with long QT syndrome (LQTS), a heart condition caused by a faulty gene. Doctors suspect both his dad and grandad may have died from the same heart condition too.

Detecting hidden heart conditions before it’s too late

Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is a condition that causes an irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia, due to abnormal electrical activity within the heart.

Some cases are inherited, where changes to proteins that coordinate the flow of electricity throughout the heart cause irregular beating patterns. Inherited changes to one of these proteins, KCNE1, are thought to play a role in LQTS, but scientists do not yet know to what extent. Our researchers are looking into it.

Using BHF-funding, Dr Stephen Harmer will supervise Dr Georgia Connolly to investigate whether inherited changes in KCNE1 are the primary causes of long QT syndrome (LQTS), or simply increase the risk of having abnormal heart rhythms. The aim of the research project is to help doctors identify and manage those most at risk of sudden death at an earlier stage.