Photo courtesy: Major League Pickleball
When Thomas Wilson, a 33-year-old professional pickleball player, first experienced an elevated heart rate—up to 300 beats per minute—he chalked it up to adrenaline while battling his opponents on the court. But he soon realized something was wrong.
Thomas spent more than a year trying to determine the root cause of his heart problems, as doctors in his hometown were unable to make a diagnosis. It wasn’t until June 2023 that Dr. Rodney Horton and the team at the Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute at St. David's Medical Center diagnosed Thomas with Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, a rare condition that is usually diagnosed at birth. Patients with this syndrome have an extra electrical pathway that causes the heart to beat abnormally fast for periods of time.
On June 7, just one day after receiving his diagnosis, Thomas underwent a high-risk heart procedure to repair the defect. The procedure, known as radio-frequency catheter ablation, involved guiding a catheter through a vein in the groin and into the heart region to destroy small areas of the affected tissue causing the fast heart rate.
Thomas was released from the hospital the same day, and he was back on the pickleball court later that week. Thomas hasn’t had any recurring episodes since the procedure and continues to be one of the top pickleball players in the world.
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