Ethan Tourtellotte
My first blog highlighted a very special young man, Ethan Tourtellotte, who discovered he had a heart abnormality called Wolffe Parkinson White Syndrome. This was identified at his free EKG screening hosted by The Ryan Lopynski Big Heart Foundation last spring. After his surgery, he wanted to honor the process by getting his first tattoo to commemorate a very successful ablation at Children’s National Medical Center, a surgery that could have saved his life!
Dr. Jessica Colyer, a wonderful cardiologist at Children’s National Medical Center in DC, donated her valuable time by interpreting the screenings at our free EKG events last spring. She also was instrumental in helping Ethan design his first tattoo. Now Ethan is our official walking billboard to help us spread the word about Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA)…the #1 cause of death in young athletes in the United States!!!
Here is his email to Dr. Colyer:
Dr. Coyler,
Ethan here, I hope all has been well with you! I am emailing you to update you on the progress of my tattoo and I am excited to inform you it is complete. I decided on merging parts of the WPW screening with the normal screening (pictures attached). I hope the tattoo is as accurate as possible to the EKGs. If not, fortunately most people looking at it have no idea what it is! I chose not to do the anatomical heart with the EKG’s as that would have been very intense for my first tattoo. I took your advice and made sure to choose a reputable place. I went to Way of Ink in Springfield and had a great experience. Thank you for helping me through this whole process; I guess from the beginning of my discovery of WPW to the recent tattoo consultation…. you have been amazing!
Ethan Tourtellotte