Meet Sarah: a SickKids patient with a dream
GUEST BLOG - Madeline Salerno, SickKids Foundation Co-op Student, Communications
When Sarah was 10 years old she was diagnosed with a heart condition called supraventricular tachycardia. It sounded scary and complicated at the time but she quickly learned how to cope and she promised herself she wouldn’t take her life for granted. In fact, at a young age she decided to dedicate her life to making other patients’ lives better.
Supraventricular tachycardia causes the heart rate to suddenly increase randomly, much more than anything exercise can bring on. The random episodes last for an average of 30 minutes with no known trigger. Sarah started experiencing episodes when she was five and saw many doctors before being diagnosed at SickKids. Upon her diagnosis she was given three options: take medicine three times per day (which wasn’t guaranteed to work), receive heart surgery or learn to control the episodes on her own.
"I will never forget the boy I saw in the waiting room that day and how fortunate I felt."
Sarah decided to take her condition into her own hands. In order to control her episodes, it was recommended that she either hang upside down or go in and out of a squatting position to slow down her heart rate when the episodes began. It took practice but now, at age 17, she is able to fully control her episodes. For example, she experienced her last episode at the starting line of a cross country race. Within a few minutes she was able to slow her heart rate back to normal and proceeded to run four kilometres to the finish line!
Now that her condition is under control she has started a new journey helping cardiology patients like her. This has been Sarah’s dream since the day she was diagnosed seven years ago. She remembers sitting in the hospital waiting room when she was younger and meeting a boy who was preparing for a heart transplant. She thought to herself, “How did I get so lucky?” That evening Sarah told her parents she was going to be a ‘kids’ heart doctor’ and has pursued her dream ever since.
One of the individuals helping Sarah to pursue her dream is her cardiologist, Dr. Elizabeth Stephenson. While visiting SickKids over the years for monitoring, Sarah developed a close relationship with Dr. Stephenson. Knowing Sarah’s career goal, this past summer Dr. Stephenson offered her an amazing opportunity: a research volunteer position in the Cardiology department.
“Sarah’s natural curiosity and drive to understand the human heart, as well as her desire to improve the lives of children is wonderful. She reminds me of what it felt like when I was her age and wanted to be a doctor. We should all hold on to a little bit of that inspiring passion, those moments when our profession really does feel more like a calling than a job,” said Dr. Stephenson.
This summer was a life-changing experience for Sarah. She spent time gathering and organizing research data and loved that she was able to work with data from people who had stories just like hers. She was also able to sit in on a consent process for a research study where SickKids staff met with and explained the study to participants. While sitting in on this process, she learned that making people feel comfortable, being approachable and making sure patients understand the questions doctors are trying to answer is critical to being a good researcher and doctor. “This is what makes SickKids staff so special,” said Sarah.
After an incredible experience working with patient data, sitting in on research studies and even having the opportunity to observe a surgery, Sarah wants to pursue a liberal arts and science degree before applying to medical school.
“I will never forget the boy I saw in the waiting room that day and how fortunate I felt,” said Sarah. “I would love to give kids the chance to feel the relief that I felt when I got the good news that I would be okay.”
