My heart is broken… so I mend others.

Katie had her first pacemaker fitted when she was four years old. Heart specialists have saved her life many times and she was determined to pay forward their gift.

Katie, 23, explains: 

Before I was even born, my mum was warned there was something wrong with my heart. At the 20 week scan they found I had a congenital heart block which meant my heart rate was half what it should have been. 

Tests revealed Mum had the autoimmune condition lupus, which was the cause of my heart block. I was born by C-section eight weeks early.

I had heart surgery when I was one. But there was still a problem with my heart rate. I was a blue child - I looked like a Smurf. Always tired and sleepy.

At four, I started passing out and went into heart failure. I was fitted with my first pacemaker. I went from blue to pink. That pacemaker lasted until I was 13. Then I started blacking out again. I needed a pacemaker upgrade. Once again, I felt amazing.

It was not to last. A heart valve had been damaged during surgery and my heart couldn’t function. I had swollen ankles, fatigue and kept fainting. I was back in heart failure.

At 20, I had open heart surgery to replace the valve and upgrade to a heart-failure pacemaker called a cardiac resynchronisation therapy pacemaker, or CRP.

Now, my pacemaker keeps me alive. I used to hate my scars, but now I’m proud. They are the reason I’ve been able to enjoy volleyball and kickboxing, earning my blackbelt when I was nine. They are the scar of my life and the reason I am alive.  

I was 14 when I knew I wanted to devote my life to other people’s hearts. At my appointments I was so interested in what they were doing. They could slow or speed up my heart rate by running tests on my pacemaker and I thought that was incredible. At every appointment, I’d see my cardiac physiologist and I realised that was the job I wanted. 

The human body is amazing. The way it compensates and tries to fix itself when things go wrong is fascinating. I did work experience at the hospital where I’d been a patient, with people who had been treating me since I was a baby. One of my consultants went to show us how to do a procedure and said: ‘I did this one on you, Katie.’ 

I wanted to do for other people what the heart team had done for me, many times over.

I studied healthcare science at university, specialising in cardiac physiology. I’ve been working with hearts for nearly two years now and love it. During lockdown, our cardiac wards became dedicated Covid wards but all departments worked to ensure the safety of everyone. Although I’m high risk, I continued to work, I just couldn’t see patients face to face and had to wear full PPE. 

Patients come to us in an emergency and we do our procedures. If it goes well, they walk out into the arms of their relatives, full of the energy I too love having. It’s such a great feeling, knowing we made a difference. 

I’ll be forever grateful to the team who have been saving my life since before I was even born. There’s nothing I can say or do to match what they’ve given me, but by doing this job, I can at least do for others what they’ve done for me.