By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current

It was weight loss and a medical condition that took Keeli Frerichs to seek medical attention that eventually led to the diagnosis of a serious heart condition.

Frerichs, the daughter of Curt and Karna Frerichs, is a 2020 graduate of Geneseo High School where she was a standout three-sport athlete, having played volleyball, basketball and soccer. After graduating from GHS, the young woman took her talents on the soccer field to St. Ambrose University, Davenport, where she was on the soccer team until a medical condition brought that part of her life to a halt.

On that first medical visit in January of 2022, Frerichs was diagnosed as having Bradycardia, described as a condition in which the heart beats at an unusually slow rate.

“My resting heart rate was in the 40s (bpm) during the day and would drop as low as 30 when I was sleeping,” she said, and added that she had no symptoms in the beginning.

She had been playing soccer at St. Ambrose prior to when her doctor found her low heat rate…”Because of ongoing medical issues and my low heart rate, my doctors pulled me from sports and I had to stop all exercise,” she said.

She was sidelined and had to miss the entire spring soccer season of her sophomore year and the entire season of her junior year at St. Ambrose.

She was sent to a cardiologist in the Quad Cities and had to use multiple heart monitors, underwent EKGs and a stress test, but yet nothing revealed why her heart rate was so low.

“My doctors thought gaining weight would fix my low heart rate,” Frerichs said. “However, that did not help my heart rate at all.”

Her health mystery continued for more than a year and she said, “I was not allowed to play soccer that whole time. Finally, my primary care doctor referred me to the University of Iowa Hospital because my low heart rate was dangerous for my health.”

It wasn’t until Frerichs and her family went to the University of Iowa Hospital and met her doctor that they realized just how dangerous her Bradycardia was for her health, she shared…”Dr. Paari Dominic, an electro physiologist, took on my mystery case at the University of Iowa Hospital.”

“At my first appointment with Dr. Dominic, I explained my condition to him, how it had been impacting me for over a year and nothing had been done to help,” Frerichs said. “It was then that he put my condition into perspective and informed me and my parents that I was at risk of dying and not waking up every night when I went to bed because of how low my heart rate would get.”

Within the first hour of her very first appointment with Dr. Dominic, he had a diagnosis and presented her with a possible treatment plan to cure the Bradycardia.

Three weeks after that first appointment, on April 21, 2023, Frerichs underwent a heart procedure referred to as Cardio euro ablation.

She explained the surgery was a four-hour procedure in which the doctors burned ganglions of the vagus nerve around her heart.

“This is a newer surgery, within the last 10 years, and I was one of the first and the youngest persons to have this specific procedure done at the University of Iowa Hospital,” she said.

She was unable to exercise or lift more than five pounds for the first week after surgery, but then was able to fully return to all activity and exercise.

“I no longer have Bradycardia and my heart rate has been restored,” she said. “Overall, I feel better and I have more energy. My body temperature is warmer. I exercise daily and can participate in all my favorite activities. I have had no complications since the surgery.”

“I now live a normal healthy life,” she said. My normal heart rate has been permanently fixed.”

Frerichs currently is in her first year of graduate school at St. Ambrose, in the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program, a 2.5-year program.

Because of the demands of school, she has chosen to not play soccer so she can focus on her studies, but she added, “However, if I wanted to, I could play. I continue to exercise daily, and I play intramural sports occasionally, for fun with my classmates.”