Beat Goes On for ‘Pace Brothers’

Many brothers spend their teen-age years at one another’s throats, but not 16-year-old Dustin Petok and his 19-year-old sibling, Josh. They enjoy each other’s company, make home movies together and often team up to play jazz, Dustin on piano and Josh on guitar.

There is something else unusual about the San Fernando Valley residents: Both have pacemakers.

In fact, the Petoks may be the only teen-age brothers in the United States who have the heart-stimulation devices. They kiddingly refer to themselves as “the Pace Brothers.”

Both Petoks received pacemakers to correct a condition known as sick-sinus syndrome, caused by a defective sinoatrial node. That node--the heart’s natural pacemaker--sends electrical impulses that stimulate heartbeats.

Pacemakers are rare among teen-agers, and rarer still among teen-age siblings. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, Americans between the ages of 15 and 24 received 213 of the 128,000 pacemakers implanted in 1991. (More than 103,000 pacemakers were implanted in those 65 and older).

Dustin and Josh Petok, who live in West Hills, are bright and articulate. They are close to one another as well as to their parents and a younger brother, 13-year-old Noel. But the pacemakers have affected their lives in very different ways.

Josh, an acting student at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, received his at the age of 16 after years of unexplained fainting spells when he was excited or under stress.

For Josh, the device is not that big a deal. He is not particularly athletic, and the device has restricted him little. He even likes to show off his incision.

“I hardly even notice it’s there,” he said. “It just becomes another part of your life. Maybe sometimes when I’m sleeping I feel it working. But that’s about it.”

But for Dustin--known to his family as Dusty--the pacemaker represents a serious disruption of life.

A slight but wiry-looking boy with a shy grin, Dusty was a two-sport athlete at Calabasas High School until last month, when he received his pacemaker.

“It was sort of hard for me to deal with,” he said, sitting in his living room with Josh, Noel and their mother, Ellen.

Last summer--little more than a year after Josh got his pacemaker--Dusty passed out during a football practice. Last month, he experienced dizziness while scoring a youth basketball game that his father, Edward, was coaching.

At the hospital, Dusty passed out as doctors tested his heart rate.

A cardiologist told Dusty’s parents that he needed a pacemaker immediately. On the spot, the doctor installed a temporary one--running a wire through an artery in Dusty’s leg into his heart. The next day, a permanent device was installed.

Doctors for Dusty and Josh have told the family that the brothers’ heart problems may be hereditary, although that has not been confirmed. In the meantime, Ellen Petok has sent her youngest son, Noel, in for an electrocardiogram.

Meanwhile, her boys go on with their lives, playing music and making home movies together.

“I think this is something that just makes us closer,” said Josh Petok, glancing at Dusty.

“When I went into the hospital to visit him, I knew exactly what he was going through.”