Heart disease touches millions. In fact, research shows 80 million Americans have some kind of cardiovascular disease.

But there’s one kind of heart problem that you might not even know you have. One woman discovered she had it, after dying and coming back to life.

Everytime Marilyn Hunter looks at the picture of her family... Five generations..She feels blessed. Blessed to be alive.

"I was so sure I had sinus trouble,” says Hunter. She self diagnosed early on, and in her words, “that wasn't good." Hunter says she knew deep down she hadn't felt right for years, but she thought she was healthy.

"65 years old and I'd never been in the hospital other than the birth of my children." But that all changed in 2006. She was feeling so poorly she went to the hospital. They kept her Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. That’s when things took a turn for the worse.

"They brought the crash cart down and my heart stopped functioning for 3 minutes." Hunter says the doctors did the paddles 5 times to bring her back to life.

Cardiologists say they don’t know why Hunter has the problem she has. But they were able to figure out it was “electrical.” Dr. Mohit Chawla is an electrophysiologist, who helped fix Hunter's problem. He says she didn't have heart disease, but rather, Non-Ischemic Cardiomyopathy.That's a fancy term for someone who has a weak heart muscle that's not because of blockages or heart attacks. Hunter's heart was quivering instead of pumping.
That’s a problem many may not even realize they have.
"A lot of people go through their entire life with these episodes and unfortunately a lot of them have been misdiagnosed as having panic attacks," Chawla says.

Dr. Chawla implanted a cardioverter defibrillator (an ICD) in Hunter’s chest. It shocks and paces the heart to restore the normal rhythm. He says while it’s complicated when it comes to the heart, this procedure is fairly straightforward.

"The technology in order for us to deploy these wires.. it's a lot easier than it was even four years ago."

The I.C.D. worked, and Hunter found that out first hand. It was just six weeks after her first stint in the hospital that she had another episode.
"It regulated my heart beat, I found out later it did save my life. It worked," Hunter says. “Kind of dodged the bullet twice."

Dr. Chawla has a number of priorities when it comes to helping people with heart rhythm problems. The first step? He says cardiologists need to "identify patients who are high risk. There is technology that are very safe that will prevent people from dying, and living longer."

Hunter says she feels better than she has in about 10 years... and has a new outlook on life.
"I'm just so lucky to be here. I just got pushed back and I try to be a better person," she says. A better person, for all five generations of her family.

A recent study looking at ICD's found there was a 31 percent reduction in the number of people who died compared to patients receiving conventional therapy alone. If you're experiencing what feels like heart fluttering, you might be dizzy, or experiencing shortness of breath, or feeling weak or tired, You may have an arrhythmia.

If you're looking for more information on heart arrhythmias, go to the newslinks section of KCRG.Com