Creston, Iowa — Five months after collapsing at a spring track meet, 15-year-old Nate Bentley is back under the Friday night lights — this time with a personalized plan and a heart monitor helping make it possible.
In April, the then-freshman football player, wrestler, and runner had just handed off the baton to his teammate at the Glenwood track meet when he suddenly went into cardiac arrest.
Bentley, a three-sport athlete whose mother says “football was his first love,” went into cardiac arrest in April after handing off the baton in the sprint medley at Glenwood. A coach quickly retrieved the school’s automated external defibrillator (AED) and delivered a shock to the teenager to help revive him before he was rushed to Children’s Nebraska in Omaha.
Doctors later diagnosed Bentley with catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, or CPVT — a rare, genetic heart rhythm disorder.
“It’s relatively uncommon and can be hard to diagnose because the heart is structurally normal,” said Dr. Ben Hale, a pediatric electrophysiologist at the University of Iowa. “Often the first symptom of CPVT can be cardiac arrest.”
People with CPVT are typically told to avoid strenuous exercise and especially contact sports, such as football. But getting back to his “first love” was a huge priority for Bentley because being an athlete was a part of his identity.
Hale designed a cautious, step-by-step return-to-play plan, starting with monitored exercise testing.
Nate is now wearing an Unequal Hart Pad to help protect the special heart monitor in his chest, called a loop recorder, to track his heart rhythm during real drills and sporting events.