Not quite feeling match-fit

At just 17 years old, Marco already has an impressive sporting career. Competing in basketball tournaments across Europe, sport is a big part of his life. And it was after one of his usual basketball matches that Marco first noticed that he wasn’t quite feeling right. “I’d finish a match and I’d be feeling tired, and my heart would be thumping for a while,” Marco explains, “but I never really thought much of it.” Marco continued his training as normal, but it was getting to the point where after a match, he’d end up feeling completely drained of energy for the rest of the day.

Recognising that Marco’s lack of energy needed some expert attention, Marco’s family took him to a local hospital. Here he had an ECG, an echocardiogram and a Holter monitor (48-hour ECG) to try and get to the bottom of what was going on. But these didn’t pick up any problems with Marco’s heart. “I only had issues after I was playing sport,” Marco explains. “So nothing could be determined from the results.” Without a clear picture of what was causing Marco’s issues, he was told he might have Marfan syndrome. This is a genetic disorder that affects the body’s connective tissues, and its symptoms include heart defects, as well as being tall with abnormally long and slender limbs. Marfan syndrome is difficult to diagnose, and Marco’s family weren’t convinced that it was what he had as it didn’t seem like Marco had all these symptoms. 

Marco was told that he could carry on playing basketball as his symptoms shouldn’t be much of a worry for the time being. Despite this advice, Marco’s symptoms were getting worse and worse. At this point, Marco’s family decided to get a second opinion. “My dad searched online for the best paediatric heart consultants,” he recalls, “and that’s how we came across HCA UK.”

Getting to the heart of the problem

Marco’s family’s research brought them to Dr Martin Lowe at The Portland Hospital. As Marco doesn’t live in the UK, his initial consultations were virtual, and Marco and Dr Lowe discussed his ongoing symptoms. After his online consultations, Marco flew over to the UK to meet Dr Lowe in person. Here he had another ECG, but to truly capture Marco’s cardiac troubles, Dr Lowe gave Marco a Zio ECG monitor. This is a wearable continuous ECG monitor that can detect abnormal heart rhythms and can be worn for up to two weeks. The data from the monitor can then be uploaded remotely and sent to a clinician for analysis. 

Marco was able to play basketball while wearing the Zio, and the monitor detected that he had supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). SVT is a condition where electrical signals from the heart’s upper chambers (the atria) cause a sudden abnormally fast heart rate. This can last from a few minutes up to several hours, and can cause feelings of weakness, breathlessness and tiredness. By using the Zio, Dr Lowe was able to give a definitive diagnosis of Marco’s heart problem. To discuss his findings, Dr Lowe had another virtual consultation with Marco. Here, he was able to present the different treatment options Marco could decide between.

Choosing a permanent solution

One of the treatment options for SVT included taking a combination of medications to slow and control Marco’s heartbeat, which he would have to take indefinitely. “The thought of being young and needing to take these pills every day meant this wasn’t really an option for me,” explains Marco. Instead, Dr Lowe and Marco came to the agreement that an SVT ablation would be the best course of action for Marco’s long-term health. “I also had a basketball tournament coming up that summer,” Marco says. “Having the ablation would mean everything would be sorted by then.” 

Rather than just managing symptoms, an ablation would instead deal with the cause of Marco’s SVT. This minimally invasive procedure involves passing a catheter (a long, flexible tube) through a blood vessel and up to the heart. Once the catheter reaches the heart, heat, cold or electrical energy is used to create scars in the areas sending the abnormal electrical signals, blocking the signals and preventing the SVT. 

Being told he needed a cardiac procedure at such a young age came as a surprise to Marco. “It definitely felt odd,” he says. “I’d put it off for so long, and thought it was just nothing. But then I looked online, and saw lots of athletes had the same thing. The obvious one is Ronaldo, who’d had an ablation at a similar age to me, so that eased my mind.” Ablation is also a long-term solution, which was reassuring for Marco.

From the hospital to the court in just a week

Marco flew back over to the UK for his procedure in spring 2025. Having a cardiac procedure can be a daunting prospect, but Marco wasn’t worried in the slightest. “I’ve always been quite calm with these sorts of things, and the nurse was so helpful,” he says. “It was all so nice, we were just having a chat. Even when I was having the anaesthetic, I fell asleep while talking to the anaesthetist and the nurse.” An SVT ablation procedure takes a couple of hours, and soon after Marco was waking up and feeling fine. Dr Lowe came to visit Marco and let him know that the surgery was a success and went perfectly. “It was nice to wake up and know it was sorted,” Marco says.

Marco had his procedure in the morning, and by four in the afternoon he was leaving the hospital. He was able to walk from the hospital to the hotel he was staying at, before flying back home in the coming days. Dr Lowe advised Marco to rest from his sporting activities for around a week before getting back into things. After his week of rest, Marco was right back into training and at full fitness, with no issues at all. “What’s crazy is I had a teammate who’d sprained his finger. He was out for longer than me, and I’d had heart surgery!” Marco says.

A few months on from the procedure, Marco had an online check-up with Dr Lowe and a local ECG to make sure he was recovering well. Dr Lowe explained that if anything were to happen after surgery, it would have cropped up before their check-up, giving Marco the assurance that everything was going well. And thanks to the minimally invasive nature of the ablation procedure, Marco was able to compete at his basketball tournament in Albania, facing teams from across Europe.

Find out more about our paediatric cardiac services at The Portland Hospital.
Find out more about supraventricular tachycardia.