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Originally published June 26, 2026
Last updated June 26, 2026
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Sheryl Heyser, who is in her 60s today, grew up in a household whose religious beliefs included abstaining from medical treatment. Because of this, Sheryl says, “I grew up with a distrust of all things medically related.” Throughout her life, she only sought medical treatment on rare occasion. However, when Sheryl’s longtime cardiac arrythmia symptoms became increasingly serious, she began to search for advanced medical care.
It was a bumpy road.
“For as long as I can remember, I have had an irregular heartbeat, but I did not give it much thought,” Sheryl says. “It was not until July 2021 that something happened to really raise alarm.”
It happened when Sheryl was beekeeping. By day, Sheryl worked full time as a Customer Account Services supervisor at her local city hall, but in her off hours, she was passionate about beekeeping.
On that day in July, Sheryl was tending to one of her beeyards at a remote area four hours away from home. Then she began feeling unwell. “I had difficulty walking from the storage area to the beeyard, a mere 150 feet away. I was suffering from shortness of breath and extreme fatigue, and my heart was racing,” she says.
When Sheryl got home, her husband drove her to a local urgent care, where electrocardiogram (EKG) results led the staff to conclude that Sheryl may have had a heart attack. Sheryl was transported by ambulance to the emergency room of her local hospital. During her three-day stay, an attending physician informed Sheryl that she had not had a heart attack; she had atrial fibrillation (AFib), a type of irregular and rapid heartbeat (arrhythmia).
From that point on, Sheryl says, her healthcare experience at the local hospital took a notable downturn. She distinctively remembers the same cardiac physician from the hospital not seeming to remember her or her case when she came to see him for a follow-up visit just a few days later. She also recounts a dearth of communication from the medical staff as well as other incidents she says left a poor impression of the professionalism there.
“My mind was made up,” she says. “There was no way I would ever go back to see this doctor.”
To treat her AFib, Sheryl had been told she would need ablation — a minimally invasive procedure during which a form of energy is applied to heart muscle cells to cause them to scar. This scar can then help shield the heart from electrical triggers that cause an irregular heartbeat.
Sheryl began searching for a place to get that treatment.
Things took a positive turn when a physician friend of Sheryl’s eldest son, a University of Southern California graduate, recommended that Sheryl see Keck Medicine of USC internal medicine physician Carrie Ward, MD. Sheryl had her first appointment with Dr. Ward in March 2022 and says the level of care she received from Dr. Ward and eventually other providers at Keck Medicine far surpassed the level of care she’d experienced elsewhere. Today, she sees numerous Keck Medicine providers, including for dermatology, gastroenterology, orthopedic surgery, rheumatology and physical therapy.
For her AFib, Sheryl was referred to Keck Medicine cardiologist Helga Van Herle, MD, who diagnosed Sheryl with paroxysmal AFib, a type of AFib in which arrythmias start and stop suddenly on their own. Dr. Van Herle referred Sheryl to cardiac electrophysiologist Andrew Zadeh, MD, for further treatment at Keck Medicine’s Arcadia clinic located at 125 W. Huntington Drive.
“Heart monitor results showed that I was consistently in AFib,” Sheryl says. “Dr. Zadeh was very thorough and provided me with all the information I needed to make an informed decision about my best course of treatment. It was evident that without an ablation, I would remain in AFib and would have an increased risk of stroke.”
Patients with AFib are at a higher risk of a stroke. When the heart doesn’t contract normally, blood can pool in the left atrial appendage, a small sac within the heart. Over time, this pooled blood can form a clot. If the clot breaks away and travels to the brain, it can block an artery and cause an ischemic stroke.
The left atrial appendage accounts for over 90% of blood clots that cause strokes in AFib patients like Sheryl, Dr. Zadeh says. To reduce the risk of stroke, AFib patients must often take blood thinners long-term.
Sheryl underwent the ablation in September 2023, which she calls a positive experience, from preop to post-op. “I was surrounded by caring and ultra-competent professionals. It is a wonderful culture and such a contrast to my last hospital experience. Everyone I observed worked together like a well-oiled machine, and I was impressed. One can tell that the staff chooses to be there — wants to be there.”
After the ablation, Sheryl was still experiencing some fatigue, shortness of breath and palpitations. Dr. Zadeh tested Sheryl again and diagnosed her with symptomatic sinus bradycardia, a condition in which the heart beats too slowly. He recommended Sheryl be implanted with a recently FDA-approved dual-chamber leadless pacemaker that is used to address abnormal or slow heart rhythms.
Dr. Zadeh and Keck Medicine were very familiar with this wireless dual-chamber pacemaker system, having served as one of the clinical trial sites when the device was tested in patients prior to its FDA approval in June 2023.
In August 2024, the pacemaker was implanted in Sheryl. In addition to supporting her heart, it allowed her to continue beekeeping without impeding her movements.
“Leadless pacemakers are ‘invisible’ to patients,” Dr. Zadeh explains. “They never know they are there. Other forms of pacemakers are traditionally implanted on the chest under the skin, and many patients feel it, have discomfort from it and are always reminded that it’s in them. This can have a psychological impact on some patients.”
On the pacemaker implantation, Sheryl says, “It was another wonderful experience. The pacemaker was implanted on a Friday; I was back to work on Monday.” After the procedure, Sheryl saw many improvements, including no more irregular heartbeats or lightheadedness.
As time went on, another problem worsened: the blood thinners Sheryl had to take to prevent the risk of a stroke due to AFib were causing problems, including balance issues that made her fall and resulted in several fractures.
To enable Sheryl to stop taking blood thinners, in June 2026 Dr. Zadeh implanted a Watchman device in her heart’s left atrial appendage. The small device works to permanently seal off the left atrial appendage. Sealing the left atrial appendage off from circulation in turn reduces stroke risk and the need for long-term blood thinners.
Incidentally, Sheryl’s June 2026 appointment with Dr. Zadeh marked a milestone for Keck Medicine: Sheryl became the one-millionth patient to visit Keck Medicine in the last 12 months.
At that visit, Dr. Zadeh performed another ablation procedure on Sheryl as well, as it is not uncommon for AFib patients to undergo multiple ablations over time. This time, he used a next-generation form of ablation called pulsed field ablation, whose benefits include a shorter procedure time, fewer complications and faster recovery.
Looking back at the journey that brought her to Keck Medicine, Sheryl says the care she has received from Keck Medicine’s providers has restored her faith and optimism in healthcare.
“To say it has been a journey in the past few years is an understatement,” she says. “I went from not trusting doctors at all to placing my complete trust in the professionals at Keck Medicine. After each procedure, I received a phone call to see how I was doing before my follow-up appointments. The comprehensive care is so superior to anything I have ever experienced. My biggest regret is that I did not find Keck Medicine decades ago.”
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