Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICDs)

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What's It Like to Live with an ICD?

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One Miss America contestant lives with an ICD every day.

Miss Massachusetts Michaela Gagne was proud to show a large scar on her chest at the 2007 Miss America pageant.
  
“The Miss Massachusetts crown gave me a megaphone to save lives,” says Michaela, who was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart-rhythm disorder as a teenage athlete.

The disorder, Long QT Syndrome, kills thousands of children each year, often before they or their parents ever realize they have a heart problem.

Michaela fainted while competing at a high school track meet, but it took two years before her condition was diagnosed. The news was devastating to Michaela, who had hoped to play soccer in college and was told she could no longer play sports.

“I entered a local pageant to feed my competitive nature,” she recalls. She also began researching ways to get back to athletics. “I wanted an ICD to feel safe on a day-to-day basis,” she says. “And I wanted the freedom to go along with it.”