“It’s like being electrocuted,” said Alana, her body quivering. “It keeps happening. Doctors can’t tell me why.”
The 25-year-old had been walking with a friend on a sidewalk when everything started spinning and her body shook. Her chest tightened and she couldn’t breathe. Her friend called an ambulance, which brought her to the emergency room.
Dizzying, heart-thumping experiences like this one had been happening to her every few weeks for eight months. Brain scans showed nothing amiss. A specialist had found no inner ear problem. Her neurologist suspected arrhythmia (or irregular heartbeat), but she hadn’t seen a cardiologist yet to have it checked out.
Her vitals, such as blood pressure, pulse and body temperature, were all normal.
It wasn’t making sense. Here was a fit, young woman who didn’t drink or do drugs. She had never been hospitalized. Yet she seemed close to a complete mental breakdown.
