Cheerleader Puts Her Heart Into Game

Varsity cheerleader Hilary Gushwa, 16, sat out the push-ups her squad traditionally performs after every touchdown at last Friday’s Moorpark High School homecoming game.

But little else was off limits to Hilary, just seven days after undergoing heart surgery. She had been scheduled for an operation after doctors discovered that her heart rate was more than 300 beats per minute.

While most heart-surgery patients would spend at least a few weeks in bed recovering, Hilary let her doctor know before she was even rolled into the operating room that she intended to join her cheerleading squad for the big game on Friday.

“He said, ‘Well, if you feel up to it, you can do physical activity after Wednesday,’ ” she said.

Hilary told him she doesn’t have time to be sick. Besides homecoming to think about, there’s cheerleading and step-dancing, not to mention an advanced placement chemistry class she takes at Moorpark College and a fund-raiser she’s planning for a girl with leukemia.

Hilary is organizing a walkathon in February, in hopes of raising $7,500 to screen bone marrow donors for Brandi Dias, 16, of Pismo Beach. The two became friends when they were contestants in California’s Outstanding Teenager contest last spring. Hilary said Brandi’s determination was inspiring during the contest and even more so once she learned Hilary was facing heart surgery.

Hilary was diagnosed with super-ventricular tachycardia, a condition that causes the heart to beat irregularly and fast. It is rare in teens, and doctors said her youth was the biggest factor in her rapid recovery.

Although Hilary has had the condition for the last year, in recent weeks she began to experience numbness in her limbs. A week before the surgery, her cheerleading coach noticed her lips were turning blue.

During the six-hour operation, doctors made incisions in Hilary’s neck and groin. They ran tiny catheters to her heart, where they burned scar tissue to reroute the natural electrical current that makes her heart pump.

Her dad, Marty Gushwa, said the family will know in two months if the surgery was successful, but doctors expect a full recovery.