Rahul was 16 and quiet… the kind of boy who always sat at the back of the class and rarely played sports.
No one really noticed him, except when he ran during P.E. class… and his lips turned a strange bluish-purple.
“Lazy lungs,” his coach joked once. But Rahul wasn’t laughing… he always felt breathless, tired, like his chest was fighting itself with every sprint. Life had always been a battle for him, in fact even his mom had to battle doctors to not stop her psychiatric medicine during pregnancy. He was a warrior, born in the colour of Lord Krishna (or that’s what her mom believed)
He hated summers the most.
In the heat, his heart would thump wildly and not just fast, but irregular, fluttery. He’d feel light-headed, sometimes needing to sit down and breathe deeply until it passed. His friends called it anxiety. One time his teacher even said it was “just stress.”
Then one day, while climbing stairs at tuition, Rahul fainted. Out cold. His friends panicked. When he woke up, his fingers were trembling, lips dusky, and pulse fast but irregular.
At the ER:
- BP: Low-normal
- Spo₂: 86% on room air
- Clubbing in fingers
- Apex beat displaced downward
- On auscultation: soft S1, a widely split S2, and a weird “sail-like” murmur
His ECG showed tall P waves, prolonged PR, and signs of right atrial enlargement.
Chest X-ray?
