Pat Doddridge, who has a heart condition, will attempt to kayak across Bass Strait to raise awareness for HeartKids

Attempting to cross Bass Strait in a kayak is daunting enough. Imagine if you had a heart condition that requires a cardiac device as well.

Attempting a record-breaking crossing of Bass Strait by kayak is daunting enough. Doing it as a teenager with a heart pacemaker is extraordinary but, to courageous Pat Doddridge, it is simply “living life”.

The second-year Adelaide University environmental engineering student was diagnosed with Long QT syndrome (LQTS) after a cardiac arrest when he was just 16.

“I was halfway up a bouldering wall when it happened and was lucky as there were two off-duty doctors and a cardiac nurse climbing next to me at the time,” he said.

“I just remember sort of climbing normally and then feeling extremely light-headed … I blacked out, coming in and out of consciousness. The (medicos) couldn’t find a pulse for about three minutes.”

Pat, diagnosed with Long QT Syndrome after suffering cardiac arrest, hopes to become the youngest person to kayak the Bass Strait. His is pictured with dad, Phil. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Dad Phil, also rock-climbing on the near-fatal day, describes his son’s sudden cardiac arrest as the “worst two minutes of my life”.

“In the months preceding Pat’s event there were two kids who died playing footy and I remember thinking, ‘how can a 16-year-old boy in the prime of health just fall down dead?’ I found out,” he said.

LQTS is a heart rhythm condition that can potentially cause fast, chaotic heartbeats and, in severe cases, sudden death.

For his two final years at Immanuel College, Pat had an advanced life support (ALS) teacher shadow him in all his classes with his dad attending any out-of-school activities with a defibrillator. The keen kayaker, downhill skier and powerlifter, now 19, has since had surgery to have a cardiac device (ICD) implanted which can “shock” him back into a normal heart rhythm when needed. He also has a pacemaker.

Pat Doddridge now has an implanted cardiac device. Pictures supplied

An x-ray showing the cardiac device under Pat’s skin.

Courageous 'heart teen' Patrick Doddridge with his dad, ready for the trip. Picture: Keryn Stevens

“At first, it was very confronting but I decided life was for living and I wouldn’t let it hold me back,” he said.

“The Bass Strait is pretty much the Mt Everest of sea kayaking … it was something I wanted to do and I thought, ‘why not now?’”

Pat will attempt the sea crossing with his dad, allowing three weeks for the trek.

“I can’t sustain a high heart rate, so it’s about knowing when to have a rest and not pushing myself too hard … I’ve done a lot of planning and training as it is important I am fit enough to keep my heart rate low,” he said.

When Pat heads off from Victoria’s Wilsons Promontory on Monday, weather permitting, he hopes to not only become the youngest person to have kayaked Bass Strait but to also raise awareness of LQTS and money for childhood heart disease charity HeartKids.