I’M BATTLING A GLOBAL CRISIS

EIGHT YEARS ago, Kevin J. Patel was sitting in his sixth-grade classroom when the chest pains hit. His heart was beating fast and it was hard to breathe, so he told a teacher.

“I thought I was fine,” Patel says, “but everyone else was freaking out.” The school nurse called the paramedics. Doctors later diagnosed Patel with arrhythmia, a condition in which the heart beats outside of its usual pattern. The cause wasn’t as straightforward..