Patient Stories

Tom Pavlik

When Tom Pavlik met his wife in Lake Tahoe for a holiday ski vacation, the 34-year-old athlete was in great shape, exercising more in a given day than most people do in a week. But as Tom skied down the mountain on Christmas Day 2000, he felt an unfamiliar tightness in his chest. When he reached the lodge, he collapsed from a massive heart attack. Near death, Tom was resuscitated with a defibrillator in the lodge, again in the ambulance and at a local hospital, before being airlifted to a cardiac center. 

Tom's doctors weren't sure he would survive the emergency surgery, let alone his first night. In the weeks following his heart attack, they told him his life would change dramatically. Given his genetic risk (his father died of a heart attack at 46) they offered Tom little hope of regaining his active lifestyle.

But the doctors didn't count on Tom's boundless determination. Within six months, he resumed biking, wakeboarding and running. Yet just as his life was turning the corner, Tom encountered another setback. In June 2001, he suffered from his first episode of ventricular tachycardia (VT), a dangerous heart arrhythmia that can cause sudden arrest.

Following tests, doctors implanted a St. Jude Medical® ICD, a sophisticated life-saving device that shocks a dangerously erratic heart back into normal rhythm. Since the implant, Tom has experienced two more episodes of VT. The St. Jude Medical device worked flawlessly both times.

Tom's eternal optimism and the "safety net" of his ICD are fueling his drive to gradually reclaim a normal lifestyle. He lives with the motto: "Half a heart with the right attitude is more powerful than a whole one."