Doctors dismissed Lauren Pfeiffer’s 200bpm heart rate as just anxiety for more than a decade

Mum-of-three Lauren Pfeiffer would be sitting on the couch and her heart would be beating over 200 beats per minute, but doctors said she had “anxiety”.

A young mum-of-three has been fitted with a pacemaker after being dismissed by doctors who told her she had “anxiety” for over a decade.

Lauren Pfeiffer was misdiagnosed and had her symptoms dismissed a 15 year period before she was diagnosed with a heart condition and finally fitted with a pacemaker in April when she was only 37 years old.

Now at 38 she is taking part in a 35km hike with Coastrek on September 6 to raise money for the Heart Foundation.

“Just because someone young is presenting with a fast heart rate doesn’t mean they just have anxiety,” she said.

Lauren Pfeiffer was only 37 years old when she was fitted with a pacemaker. Picture: Supplied

Ms Pfeiffer would find her heart rate increasing out of nowhere.

“I could be sitting on the couch and I’d be in the high two hundreds not doing anything,” she said.

“I’d go to emergency … and they would put it down to having anxiety and that there was nothing wrong with me.”

Eventually one cardiologist diagnosed her with supraventricular tachycardia (‘SVT’) — a type of arrhythmia — and placed her on medication, but the episodes continued.

Ms Pfeiffer saw another cardiologist, nine years ago, who said this was a misdiagnosis and that she really has ventricular tachycardia (‘VT’) and prescribed another medication.

While this worked better for the dental practice manager she found her heart rate decreasing dramatically over the years, getting in the low 30 beats per minute.

Lauren’s heart would get to over 200 beats per minute. Picture: Supplied

and eventually as low as 30 beats per minute. Picture: Supplied

“I was having plummeting heart rates among having really fast heart rates,” she said.

“I was sitting some days in the low 30s and then other days in the 200 hundreds.

“When it’s going really fast it’s like running a marathon, and essentially your body goes into fight and flight mode because your adrenaline is pumping so hard and then after that your really fatigued.

“Then when it’s really slow again, you’re really fatigued, you’re breathing hard, moving hard, you don’t want to eat, you want to sleep, essentially because the blood is not being pumped around your body.”

Earlier this year, tests confirmed, after 15 years, Ms Pfeiffer has sick sinus syndrome — a heart rhythm disorder — and required a pacemaker.

Lauren Pfeiffer was only 37 years old when she was fitted with a pacemaker. Picture: Supplied

After being dismissed and misdiagnosed all these years and suffering with her heart condition, Ms Pfeiffer has since also been diagnosed with clinical PTSD.

“When it (her heart rate changes) happens, it feels like you’re dying … I would think I was having a heart attack,” she said.

“Sometimes when I would get to the hospital, because I lived in the Hills, it would’ve passed, so then it was like, it’s just anxiety, it’s all in your head, you’re a hypochondriac.

“That’s what has brought on the post traumatic stress.”

If you’d like to donate to Ms Pfeiffer’s fundraiser for Heart Foundation, you can here.

Registrations for the hike close on July 28.

Originally published as Doctors dismissed Lauren Pfeiffer’s 200bpm heart rate as just anxiety for more than a decade