As Lucretia Jones washed dishes one late Christmas eve, a frightening sensation took her by surprise. "My heart just went crazy. It was racing and irregular," she recalls. The New York City epidemiologist, then 50, was experiencing her first attack of arrhythmia.

Lucretia led a busy life, with no time for health crises. A former emergency medical technician, she had just earned her master's degree in public health. That year she began leading a Department of Health unit on communicable diseases. At the same time she was raising two children, caring for her elderly mother, and volunteering for a grassroots organization she had helped found in her South Bronx community.

Lucretia's partner, Jesse, was with her when her heart began to race. An emergency medical technician himself, he drove her to Mount Sinai Heart, where Lucretia was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.

Atrial Fibrillation: A Treatable Condition

In atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat prevents blood from moving from the atrium into the ventricle. The condition can revert to normal in minutes or hours, but sometimes it persists. In every case, the blood that pools in the atrium is at risk of clotting. The clots can break off and cause a stroke.

The Mount Sinai Heart Telemetry Unit admitted Lucretia for monitoring. There, she and her family met Bruce Darrow, MD, PhD, Director of the Telemetry Unit and Assistant Professor of Cardiology. Dr. Darrow prescribed medication that stabilized Lucretia’s heartbeat. Lucretia was released within just a few days.

Three times over the next few months, though, Lucretia's arrhythmia returned. After the third time, Dr. Darrow referred Lucretia to Avi Fischer, MD, Director of Pacemaker and Defibrillator Therapy and Assistant Professor of Cardiology. Although the cardiologists discussed performing a minimally invasive catheter ablation procedure, a last-minute adjustment to Lucretia’s medication stabilized her heartbeat.

The Crisis Spreads

Just as Lucretia's health crisis was resolved, her mother experienced her own. About a year after Lucretia experienced her first arrhythmia, her mother, Yvonne Jones, had trouble breathing. Lucretia rushed her to the Mount Sinai emergency room, where she spotted Dr. Darrow.

"He immediately recognized me and said, 'What are you doing here?'" Lucretia says. "It's not me this time, it's my mother," she told him. Dr. Darrow took the elder Ms. Jones into his care, as well.

Like Daughter, Like Mother

Like Lucretia, Yvonne had atrial fibrillation, but hers was more severe. She needed cardioversion, a brief burst of electricity to reset her heart rhythm. The medication that worked so well for her daughter did not work for her. Yvonne received a pacemaker and catheter ablation therapy, instead.

Lucretia is thrilled with her doctors' skill and perseverance and is especially impressed with the compassionate care she and her mother both received. "Some places you can walk past your doctor and they might not know you," Lucretia says. "Dr. Darrow actually comes in to sit down and talk. He makes us feel like we are his only patients."

Aftercare Espoused

Dr. Darrow helped Yvonne enroll at the Martha Stewart Center for Living at Mount Sinai. The Center is a primary-care service that provides older adults with medical care, healthy living activities, educational programs, caregiver support, and community referrals.

"My mother never liked to leave the house, but now she looks forward to receiving all her care at Mount Sinai," Lucretia says.

As for herself, Lucretia has returned to her usual hectic schedule.

"Who would have thought that I would be going for my PhD at my age?" she says. "There is still so much to do."