lltomich

If you can get an EKG done during an SVT episode a good electrophysiologist will be able to diagnosis your child. During an episode of SVT take your child to the ER and tell them they are having a fast heart rhythm and you need an EKG done asap (normally a good ER will take a heart rhythm patient back to a room right away since it's the heart). Good news - SVT is pretty much benign. I had AVNRT from birth and had surgery for 3 1/2 hours 3 months ago and it's cured. Many SVT's like AVNRT can be permanently cured with surgery with a 95 - 98% success rate of a permanent cure. I would definitely consider that for my child when they were old enough to be OK with it (that of course depends on the child). Living with an SVT or threat of an episode is honesty not something I would recommend as it can occur at the worst possible time (planes, parks and so on) and effect the quality of your life. Meds can be much more dangerous than surgery regardless of what some may say. I had a bad reaction to meds and ended up having Ventricular Tachycardia (cardiac arrest) but thank goodness I was in the ER when it happened (getting adenosine to bring my heart back down during a 4 hours SVT attack). I went for years without problems due to meds and the med that used to help me almost killed me, drugs are dangerous and have many side effects and I would never put my child on a heart drug personally. I am not in favor of meds at all for children or adults. SVT's are benign but when a med to help them causes a ventricular arrythmia and cardiac arrest, chest pains and almost death (probably would have died if not in the ER), surgery to cure the problem is best. I would have done the surgery sooner but back when I learned I had AVNRT the diagnosis wasn't clear because the field was so new and the surgery risky. Nowadays, it's very, very safe. I would never want my child/teenager to live with this illness once they were willing to have the surgery to permanently cure it. I'm very sorry to hear that your child has to deal with this at age 11. Best Wishes and if you need any other information please let me know. Find a good electrophysiologist in your area and everything will be fine.