“That machine saved my pens”: Francesca and the subcutaneous defibrillator

Francesca was born with a "bellows" in the heart, as she defines it. Periodic checks, but no major disturbances, just some signs: “I couldn't run, the climbs were too tiring for me”. To her, who was majoring in physical education, it just didn't seem possible. And then she, if she was out of breath, she pretended to look for something inside the bag, if the climb was too steep, she looked for a handkerchief in her pocket. The medical insights start, she goes to a renowned specialist: “He makes me enter a room with a giant table, shows me a pyramid with the sudden death chart and tells me: you are here”. She had placed her in the medium-high risk zone. Francesca leaves that study with a sense of total rejection. Failure to empathize with the doctor will unfortunately have important consequences. "I was pretending to cure myself, I was taking one pill every other way".

After a few years, in one of the usual checks, the worsening is unfortunately evident. "At that point I took things more seriously." He doesn't "skip" the pills, if he feels a "pain," he stops. He agrees to slow his life down a bit. They forbid her to ski, she screams a little but she does. She also accepts, in 2019, the doctors' proposal to insert a subcutaneous defibrillator. “I said yes, but I was convinced it would never help me. They had defined it as a possible parachute, a silent device that in the event of dangerous fibrillation starts and saves your life ”. The intervention is fine, but here opens a new unpublished page in Francesca's life.

“I felt bad with this thing on. Why was my back crooked now? I no longer moved my left arm ". It's normal, the doctors said, it's a passing state, then the body gets used to it. “A post-operative rehabilitation step is missing a lot,” says Francesca. And she does not rest. She will do it herself. “I get to work with a physiotherapist friend who supported me”. There is a physical and a psychological component, says the friend. So off with a workout based on yoga, postural, pilates, and of course physiotherapy. “During the lockdown for the covid I had a lot of free time and I created an Instagram page where I showed how it is possible to live with the subcutaneous defibrillator. About fifty people wrote to me ”.

“I'm afraid”, someone said; "I will never find a boyfriend"; "My child will no longer be able to play with friends". Francesca answered each of them, and she does it today too. But there is one last stage that this girl had to face, on May 29, 2021. “We had decided with the family to all go on a trip to Monterosso. I had come back late the night before, and the train was at 7,20 in the morning. I arrived at the station five minutes earlier and from a distance I can see the train arrive. I had a crazy run. I took the train, I said bye bye to my mother, a little pain and then the darkness: I fainted. When I opened my eyes there were mum and aunt above me with eyes full of tears: that little machine had saved my pens ". She naturally claimed she just passed out, but they almost force her to go to the hospital. There they download the data and the result is unequivocal: the defibrillator started working and she didn't notice anything. She saved her life.

“I'm glad I put it on. This experience taught me to measure my time: less commitments, less trouble, more space for myself. I also started skiing again with the consent of the doctors. And next time, if I ever have to miss the train, I'll miss it ”.