Joe,

Not sure I understand, is this something that happens to her "regularly"? The reason I ask is that since I was 16 I started having episodes of rapid heartbeat called heart palpitations. In HS it happened almost once every 2 months or more frequently, after college, they tapered off to about once per year. Could not find a rhyme or reason for their happening, sometimes, I'd be sitting watching TV and it would just happen. About 8 or 9 years ago, I had one episode where it did not stop, which was not necessarily a bad thing because I had been trying to get an EKG while it happened since I was 16 (I was 31or 32 at that point) and so when my wife drove me to the hospital they were able to get an EKG on it (unfortunately, when they switched from paper records to electronic, that got lost, so my current Cardiologist does not have that EKG). They had to chemically stop it and they admitted me overnight and gave me a battery of tests the following morning. I About 7 or 8 years ago, I was put on beta blockers and I have only had 3 episodes since then. My cardiologist still does not know the underlying reason for my episodes, but the beta blockers keep the heart rate steady so that when I do feel the symptoms of an episode about to happen (I get a flutter in my chest), my heart rate goes back to normal, except for the 3 times I mentioned earlier and those episodes were real short, 55 minutes or less, whereas my "normal" is 15 - 20 minutes (the time it did not stop, it was an hour before they gave me the injection to return my heart to normal).

Still scary, but I was told they were not life threatening. Hopefully that is the same for your wife's heart problem.

Paul