SADS Foundation :: Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes Foundation

I would never have heard of Long QT syndrome if my son didn't die on December 22, 2001. He was just 25 years old. He was still living at home and attending WSU. He was a senior. He had a 3.0 grade point average. He worked nearby at Mr. Goodcents sandwich shop.

One Friday evening he left for work as usual. My wife and I were going to a birthday party over at my parent's house. When we returned around ten-thirty, Paul's car was in the driveway. Everything still seemed normal. The sandwich shop closed at ten and Paul was home. I moved his car to get in the garage, and noticed the parking brake was set, which was odd because he never did that. When we walked inside I knew he wasn't there. I figured he'd probably left with a friend. It was Friday night after all. Then I checked the caller ID to see if anyone had called while we were out. There were repeated calls from the sandwich shop. I thought it was strange because Paul knew we weren't home and he knew where we were.

The horror of what happened next will burn in our memories forever. I hit the playback button on the answering machine. A frantic voice said, "Is anyone there? Please pick-up. This is an emergency. It's Paul. Something happened to Paul." Then a second message: "Please pick-up, please pick-up, anybody please." In the background I could faintly hear, "there's no pulse." The third message was from the storeowner. He said an ambulance had taken Paul to Riverside hospital.

We drove to the hospital as fast as we could. When we arrived we were told he was stable, but in a coma. We tried to find out what had happened. The store manager was there and said Paul had been in the kitchen when he collapsed. There had been no pulse and he wasn't breathing. EMTs used a defibrillator to start his heart on the way to hospital. Paul never regained consciousness. He died at eight o'clock the next morning. We couldn't understand his loss. The autopsy report said simply, "sudden cardiac death of unknown etiology."

In the days following Paul's death I scoured the internet, trying to find out more about the cause of this tragedy.  I typed in "sudden death in young people" and found the SADS Foundation's web site. There I found other families like mine and started to learn about genetic arrhythmias like long QT syndrome. Given the symptoms and patterns of these disorders, I know one of them killed my son. I only wish we had known about these risks in time to have him treated.

Young people like Paul don't have to die. Genetic cardiac conditions can be treated. The keys are community awareness, physician education, and early diagnosis. Please give whatever you can to help us further these goals.

Thank You,

Paul and Nikki Bryant