DUBLIN, Ga. —
Dakoda McDonald is an avid wrestler and martial arts have been in life since he was a kid.
"I take fights, so I'll do Jiu Jitsu tournaments, multi-tournaments and I'm hoping to make my MMA debut," McDonald said.
As a new trainer at the Planet Fitness in Dublin, you can see him walking around and helping people on a fitness journey.
These days, he doesn't take the job too lightly.
He remembered a particular wrestling match three years ago.
"I got on the mat and I just knew like right then and there something is off," McDonald said.
He said his heartbeat wouldn't slow down and he couldn't relax.
Initially, his mom figured he was overreacting, but a visit to the emergency room proved he wasn't.
"They gave me an EKG, [and] then they figured out I actually had a problem. They gave me all the medicine to, you know, lower the heart rate and that didn't happen. So, they shocked me [and] airlifted me to Savannah," McDonald described.
After he woke up, doctors told Dakota he had two heart conditions.
One known as Wolff-Parkinson White Syndrome, or WPW.
It's a rare condition affecting less than 20,000 Americans and it's typically noticed at birth.
"Usually the pediatric cardiologist, it doesn't make it past those guys," Dr. Carmine Oddis with Piedmont Macon said.
Doctors also told McDonald he had another condition known as Supraventricular Tachycardia, or SVT.
Dr. Oddis said both of these create a faster than normal heartbeat.
"When you're beating that fast, you're not really being super efficient with blood flow. Your heart's not having enough time to relax and pump a lot of blood," Dr. Oddis explained.
About 200,000 Americans are faced with SVT every year.
According to Dr. Oddis, it is rarely life threatening.
However, he adds you shouldn't ignore either.
"If you're having this all the time, that's very detrimental," Dr. Oddis said.
If this goes untreated, he said it could weaken the heart and cardiac arrest could happen.
Luckily, he said treating it is fairly routine.
"We can go in through the groin, go up to the heart [and] you're actually awake for the whole thing, and try and cauterize the spot that's causing the trouble," Dr. Oddis said.
It's something Dakota said saved his life.
"If I didn't go to the ER that night, I feel like I probably would have died, I'm not going to lie," McDonald recalled.
Today, he limits his caffeine intake and is building his clientele as a wrestler.
He's not letting a scare like this keep him from the wrestling mat.
"You only live once man. You got to chase the dream somehow," McDonald said.