F.M. Kirby Center technical director Mike Dale was performing his duties as events coordinator and program director of Wilkes-Barre’s annual Rockin’ The River music series on a beautiful day this past July when he suddenly felt like his heart was about to punch through his chest.
“I kind of felt a little unevenness. It just felt a little odd. It felt like my heart was racing,” said Dale, 57.
He stood in the wings of the stage for about 20 minutes trying to figure out what was going on. Afterall, he didn’t have a history of heart issues. Was he just moving faster than normal? Was he dehydrated?
Still, his heart felt heavier than it ever had before. After a friend told him he didn’t look good, Dale decided to go to the Geisinger medical tent for evaluation.
Geisinger, a major sponsor of Rockin’ the River, has had the emergency tent set up at the event for last five years.
There, he met with Dr. Corey Goldberg, Dr. Brian Saracino, and the rest of the medical team.
“The nice thing is we had a lot of things [in the tent] that you would have in any emergency department,” Saracino said. “We were able to able hook him up and see exactly what his heart was doing at the time.”
It was then they discovered his heart rate was dangerously high — over 206 beats per minute.
According to Golberg and Saracino, Dale had an episode of what is known as Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), which is a type of irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia, that is characterized as a very fast or erratic heartbeat that affects the heart’s upper chambers.
“I guess on the scale of dangerous arrhythmias, the SVT isn’t typically so dangerous other than the fact that when it does get that fast, someone might not be able to compensate for it very well and they could feel lightheaded, they could pass out,” Goldberg said.
This arrhythmia can be caused by a number of things.
“Sometimes you don’t find the trigger,” Goldberg said. “It could be caffeine. It could be an underlying electrical abnormality or a thyroid disorder. You could have electrical activity problems of your heart and it just does that every now and then.”
As a precaution, the medical team started Dale on an IV fluids and after a few minutes, they gave him medicine to reset his heart rhythm.
“All of a sudden, my heart rate went from 206 to 98,” Dale said.
While the technical director felt well enough to go back to work, the doctors suggested he go to the emergency room for a more in-depth evaluation. Geisinger then arranged for him to be transported to Geisinger South, where his tests came back normal and he was discharged a few hours later.
Dale then followed up with a cardiologist and wore a heart monitor for about a week and underwent an echocardiogram, which is an ultrasound of the heart.
Those tests also came back normal.
Now, Dale checks in with his cardiologist every couple of months, just to make sure everything is okay, and he’s grateful for getting the care he needed that July night.
“[Doctors in the Geisinger tent] have helped many people,” he said. “I’m just thankful they were there for when I needed them.”
Both physicians urged anyone who experiences similar symptoms like Dale did that day — shortness of breath, chest pain, heart palpitations — to go to an emergency department.
Saracino, who has spent many summers in the Geisinger medical tent, said having emergency services at big events like Rockin’ the River is a vital resource to keep the community safe.
“We’ve shown time and time again that we’ve had people come there that we’ve been able to intervene and provide very rapid and quick care and make a difference,” he said.
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