An electrophysiology technician in Toronto is going above and beyond to inspire new hope for sick children.
Christine Chiu-Man is in charge of operating very small, thin implantable defibrillators – hardware that helps hundreds of children’s hearts tick. It’s a pacemaker that helps regulate heart rhythm. In an emergency, the device can also jolt the heart back to life.
Without the defibrillator and the team from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the dreams of many youngsters, like Daniel Schenck, would drift away.
Schenck wants to be a marine biologist, something he has set his sights on since kindergarten. “From as far back as really I can remember, I’ve wanted to do this with my life,” the 16-year-old says, who took scuba diving lessons to help achieve his career goal.
But two years ago, he suddenly collapsed at school. “(I) jogged up some stairs, passed out… I didn’t really know what was going on. Everyone was kind of looking down (saying) ‘What are you doing on the floor?'”
A series of tests revealed Schenck had a conductive heart condition and needed a pacemaker. That’s how he met Chiu-Man.
“(The pacemaker) will protect him. That will help…to make sure that his heart rate does not go too slow. But on the other hand, the defibrillator will be there to protect him if he should develop an abnormally fast heart rate,” Chiu-Man explains.
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His condition brought some limitations. “They said ‘You can’t do this, you can’t run, you can’t do any of this other stuff’ because they didn’t really know what was happening,” Schenck says.
In a twist of cruel irony, the very device that could save Schenck would also threaten his future career, because diving and pacemakers don’t mix.
Most cardiac devices aren’t built to withstand deep sea pressure. “It doesn’t let you go diving past 40 feet, and if you’re a recreational diver, 40 feet is a pretty big limitation,” Schenck explains.
“So that was the biggest, that it might actually stop my entire dream of becoming a marine biologist. If I can’t dive, I can’t do that.”
As a result, Schenck’s parents, who are engineers, and Chiu-man launched the search for a pacemaker that could go deep down the sea. They eventually found it – only to hit a roadblock. The hospital wasn’t geared to support it.
The news was devastating. Deb Schulte, Schenck’s mother, recalls thinking, “How are we going to break this to our son?”
But Chiu-man wasn’t discouraged. She cut through all the red tape and technical barriers, until she got what Schenck needed. “Christine was willing to do that, do the research herself as well…it was amazing… She did all that extra work…and tried to get it to work for me,” the boy says.
“(It’s) a device that would allow me to go down to 130 feet, like it had been tested to the pressure of 130 feet.”
“So if I was unable to dive after that, that would have been pretty shattering,” Schenck recalls. “That would have been pretty big…’cause it’s definitely one of my favourite things to do. So losing that and then also losing the career that I’ve wanted to go into, it would’ve been pretty bad.”
Schulte was amazed. “(It’s) unbelievable. The support you get at that hospital – they don’t just care about making kids well, they care about quality of life. And I can’t tell you what that is like from a mother’s perspective.”
These days, Schenck is healthy, thriving, and diving. And the teen owes it to Chiu-man. “It’s not just ‘Treat the patient, next person.’ It’s like she really builds a connection with the patients and that’s great.”
“She connects really well with people and…she’s just a really positive person. She just really likes doing good things.”
And Chiu-man has good things to say about her patient. “He is a very smart boy. And he’s very interested to become a marine biologist. And we want to help him achieve that dream.”
“We would be so proud to see him discover a new species in the underwaters.”
If you’d like to nominate your Everyday Hero, email your story idea to everydayhero@globalnational.com.
With files from Global National’s Kieron O’Dea and Dawna Friesen
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