Becky Holter: Atrial Flutter

When Becky Holter began planning her wedding, she couldn’t have imagined how much her health would interfere with her plans. Becky was born with a hole in her heart and a leaking mitral valve. A year before her August 1997 wedding, she was chronically fatigued and received a stress test and an echocardiogram. Becky had developed chronic atrial flutter, a rhythm disorder that causes the heart to beat fast. She received cardioversion therapy to terminate the arrhythmia and was hospitalized for further testing. Her doctors placed her on anti-arrhythmic medication and performed surgery to repair her septum and reduce the size of her enlarged right atrium.

Becky’s atrial flutter resumed shortly after the heart surgery, despite modifications to her drug regimen. For a full-month before her wedding, she experienced continuous atrial flutter. In November 1997, Dr. Marshall Stanton at the Mayo Clinic performed a mapping and ablation procedure with the   3000® System that terminated her chronic atrial flutter. Now arrhythmia free for 18 months, Becky no longer needs frequent naps or arrhythmia medication. Her energy has returned, and she has resumed an active lifestyle with her husband Jeff that includes hiking, horseback riding, and biking.