Emily Harron, American Heart Association News
Associated Press
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Paul Dunwell was attending a town council meeting when he started to feel ill, had trouble breathing and couldn’t concentrate on the conversation.
He shook it off that night, not thinking it was anything serious, but over the next few weeks the symptoms continued to worsen. His strength declined rapidly. He struggled to walk the 1.5 mile commute to work, a distance he’d made without issue for years.
Dunwell was the fire chief in Shallotte, North Carolina. As a trained paramedic who served in the fire department for over 30 years, Dunwell knew how to identify the key symptoms of many serious health problems. However, he did not see the connection between his symptoms and the more serious problems and did not feel the need to seek immediate medical help.
But after several months of feeling unwell, he finally went to see his doctor.
Doctors quickly realised something was wrong: Tests revealed that Dunwell had atrial fibrillation (AFib), an irregular heartbeat that can lead to more serious complications.
Dunwell was sent home with an electrocardiogram monitor that tracks her heart rate and gives her more information to determine the severity of her condition, which also helps to develop a treatment plan. Some people can control atrial fibrillation with medication and lifestyle changes, while others require medical procedures or surgical intervention.
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A cardiac monitor revealed that Dunwell was experiencing irregular heartbeats several times a day, often for hours or more. Doctors diagnosed the condition as “serious” and Dunwell needed medical attention.
Dunwell was diagnosed in July 2021, but because the health care system was still overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic at the time, she was unable to see a cardiologist right away or schedule the procedure she needed to improve her health.
He waited weeks to see a specialist. During that time, his symptoms worsened. He experienced extreme shortness of breath, dizziness, fatigue and cognitive problems. It took him an hour to walk one mile around his neighborhood. He couldn’t drive and was barely able to work. His symptoms were so severe that he went to the emergency room twice.
When he finally got his long-awaited appointment, a caseworker reviewed his medical information and told him he would likely have to quit his job as a firefighter.
Dunwell was devastated. At 51, he still thought he had many years left in his career.
“Firefighting has been my life,” he said, “I’ve been doing it for 33 years and I just couldn’t quit.”
He was determined to do all he could to recover enough to continue working.
In November 2021, he underwent an ablation procedure, a procedure to remove abnormal tissue around the heart that was causing the arrhythmia, and he also began taking different medications.
“But I didn’t want to be on medication forever,” he said. What’s more, the medication caused a host of side effects, including numbness and tingling in his hands, dizziness and tremors, that impaired his ability to function. “It was like he was a different person,” his wife said.
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Dunwell knew the pill regimen was not sustainable: “I said to my doctor, ‘I want to be a firefighter. How can I get healthy enough to be one?'”
His doctors helped him gradually taper off his medication and gave him lifestyle guidelines to maintain to keep his heart healthy — most of which he was already following: He’d always been active, ate reasonably well, and didn’t smoke or drink. The only risk factor he could identify was a family history of heart disease since his father experienced an irregular heartbeat in his 70s.
A few months after the surgery, Dunwell went to see his doctor for a follow-up visit, and he had him undergo a cardiac stress test to see how his heart was handling the increased stress of exercise.
He got on the treadmill and started running. “This feels good,” he thought.
He had never run before and always thought the sport was beyond his ability, but as he was on the treadmill, all he could think about was how good it felt to run and how he didn’t want to stop.
“So I just kept running,” he says. “I got on the treadmill and have been running almost every day since then.”
He achieved his goal of continuing as a firefighter, and has since set many new goals in the sport of running.
Dunwell has run nearly 4,000 miles since stepping on a treadmill a little over two years ago, averaging a 5K a day and completing multiple half marathons. He’s training for Walt Disney World’s Dopey Challenge, aiming to complete a 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon over four days in January.
“I’ve known Paul for over 18 years and I’ve never seen him run,” said Justin Ward, assistant fire chief with Shallotte Fire Rescue. “At his worst, he could barely walk 100 feet without getting out of breath. But now he’s running at full speed in marathon training, inspiring all of us to take care of ourselves so the same thing doesn’t happen to us.”
A big source of motivation for Dunwell is thinking about everything he’s been through and wanting to come out of it better in his life, as well as sharing his story with others to help them avoid heart problems.
“When I’m running, I often think that I’m here because of all the people in my life who have cared about me,” he said. “They never gave up on me, so I can’t give up on myself.”
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