THE HEART OF A CHAMPION

5/20/10

At ten years old, UMass Boston Men's Lacrosse player Patrick `Packy' McDonagh (Dorchester, MA) was just like every other kid in the park, an energetic child enjoying a rambunctious and active lifestyle. The youngster enjoyed playing basketball or baseball with his friends for hours until he started noticing some fatigue setting in much easier than ever before. Doctors believed the symptoms were connected to a heart murmur but the truth was that McDonagh had a rare heart condition called Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT) which causes the heart to beat at rates much faster than usual, sometimes as high as four times the normal resting rate. For the time being, it was the beginning of the end of McDonagh's athletic career. (MORE)