FORT WORTH, Texas — If you looked at Byron Norman, you’d first notice his infectious smile. But what you can’t see is the device helping him get his stride back and stay on beat.
The Forth Worth native and Air Force Veteran is the first Texan and person in nine states to receive the newly FDA-approved implantable heart defibrillator.
Norman’s journey to this point started years ago after battling multiple injuries while serving seven years in the Air Force and completing two tours in Iraq.
“The first time I was out there, a mortar went off, and it blew me into a tent and knocked out both of my knees,” Norman said. “I’ve been run over by an F-35 and it crushed my foot.”
In total, he’s had 36 war-related surgeries. However, the reason for number 37 was probably his most important procedure.
On Oct. 6, 2023, Byron and his wife Priscilla just got home from their two daughters’ volleyball game when suddenly, Norman started feeling pressure in his neck and couldn’t slow down his heart rate.
“I tried all the techniques I had learned over the years to get it to slow down, but nothing worked,” he said. “My wife insisted I go to the hospital.”
“When I got to the ER, they were like, 'You’re having a heart attack,'” Norman said.
He had tachycardia, a condition that causes a person’s heart to beat more than 100 beats per minute at rest.
Dr. Aleem Mughal, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Baylor Scott & White Heart & Vascular Hospital in Fort Worth, suggested a long-term solution.
Mughal said the device “tailors the best therapy for an individual patient.”
It’s placed under the patient’s sternum outside the heart and veins and can pace and pause prevention-pacing therapies.
“It has two methods in which it can break an abnormal heart rhythm,” said Mughal. "It allows us to get the device for that individual patient treating him like a human being, rather than a case,” he said.
Norman is the first person in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Utah to receive the device.
A few months out since surgery, Norman is already back to working out, slowly starting to run again. He said he feels great and has no complications.
Norman is expected to make a full recovery. He’s looking forward to a life full of no complications and getting back on beat.
“I’m just getting warmed up," he said.