Jeremy had suffered from both ventricular arrhythmia and atrial fibrillation, electrical signals that cause an irregular heartbeat.

By exploring his family history, doctors and a genetic counselor at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center's Ross Heart Hospital identified a new genetic trigger of heart arrhythmia. That trigger almost certainly explained the untimely deaths of Jeremy’s grandfather and great-grandfather. And, it alerted his mother, his sister and even his five-year-old niece to their own probability of early heart disease.

Ohio State was at the forefront of this heart disease discovery, thanks to the generosity of donations large and small.

Ross Heart Hospital clinicians and researchers genetically mapped billions of pieces of DNA, looking for tiny mistakes and noting which mistakes family members shared.

Ohio State researchers determined not only a specific cause of heart disease — Jeremy’s variant — but also a new pathway that can lead to lifesaving therapies.

With those therapies, Jeremy’s family is now more protected against the early heart disease their family faces.

Ohio State is a leader in cardiovascular research, developing novel genomic technologies to explain and address heart arrhythmia. In fact, every day physicians around the world use Ohio State's groundbreaking discoveries and treatments to treat their patients.

Hundreds of thousands of people die every year from cardiac arrhythmia. That’s unacceptable. Without critical funding, new genetic variants might not be uncovered and families might not be protected. Please help the Ross Heart Hospital continue its high-impact research. Because saving one patient can mean saving thousands of lives.