Niese May Have Heart Procedure During All-Star Break

Only in this day and age can you get a hole poked in your heart one day, then go out and play ball the next.

Jonathon Niese left Sunday’s game with an elevated heartbeat.  He experienced the same malady during a start in the blazing heat of Arlington, Texas during an interleague game last year against the Rangers.  The heat can cause dehydration, which in turn can cause a rapid heartbeat.  But that wasn’t the cause on Sunday.

Doctors are not concerned about his condition, saying it is not a threat to his well-being.

Niese will consider a procedure called “ablation surgery” to treat his condition.

“I won’t miss any starts,” Niese said. “It’s like an outpatient thing that you do. It only takes like three days to recover from it. We might be doing it All-Star break, that way I don’t miss any starts.”

Outpatient heart surgery.  Welcome to 2012.

Web MD has a detailed description of ablation treatments, both surgical and non-surgical:

Non-surgical ablation, used for many types of arrhythmias, is performed in a special lab called the electrophysiology (EP) laboratory. During this non-surgical procedure a catheter is inserted into a specific area of the heart. A special machine directs energy through the catheter to small areas of the heart muscle that causes the abnormal heart rhythm. This energy “disconnects” the source of the abnormal rhythm from the rest of the heart. It can also be used to disconnect the electrical pathway between the upper chambers (atria) and the lower chambers (ventricles) of the heart.

The medical knowledge one gains by being a Mets fan seems to have no end.  Whatever Jon decides, we hope he has a long and healthy career.