When the doctor said, “You have arrhythmia supraventricular tachycardia,” Alex Sturanovic was stunned. He already knew that something was wrong with his heart and had for a long time, but he never imagined something with a long name and complicated meaning.

Seven years ago, Alex woke up impressed by his incredible fast heart rate. He didn’t tell anybody about it.

He came to the United States from Serbia on Aug. 21, 2009, to play basketball at Seward County Community College. At the beginning, the arrhythmia attacks caught him only occasionally.
One day he felt bad from the morning to the early night. His host mom realized that something was wrong, and asked him what was happening. Sturanovic told her his situation, and immediately she took him to the doctor, where they discovered his disease.

According to the St. Jude Meical Web site, www.sjm.com, “Supraventricular (originating above the ventricles) tachycardia (SVT) is a series of fast atrial heartbeats that can cause the heart to contract at rates of 250 times per minute or faster. SVT can be uncomfortable and frightening. The type of treatment depends on whether the electrical impulses reenter the atria via a bypass tract (Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome), through the atrioventricular (AV) node, or are caused by a single abnormal group of cells.”

Once he found out the medical problem, Sturanovic had another problem: his insurance didn’t cover that. He tried to be positive, but the doors appeared to be closed all the time, until a doctor in Wichita named Dr. Sambit Mondal offered to do the surgery without any compensation. This surgery was going to cost between $50,000 to $100,000 in other circumstances.

Sturanovic had his surgery Feb. 23. His problems were resolved on that day, and now he will be able to play basketball for the Saints again.

He played last semester with the Saints with an average of 2.2 points, 2.3 rebounds and 0.6 blocks, and returned to the court in Tuesday’s regional game.

For Bryan Zollinger, Saints men’s basketball head coach, the “most important thing during that time, was Alex’s life.” Sturanovic said the whole team was concerned about his health, and now they feel glad about his healthy recovery.