A desperate young man has told how he is too scared to leave his own home because of an unknown medical condition that causes him to faint up to four times a day.
Samuel Carvalho, 21, is constantly tumbling down stairs, collapsing in roads or crashing head first into objects after mysteriously passing out.
The former toy shop worker frequently comes around, dazed, confused and suffering injuries after suffering a fainting fit.
Doctors admit they are baffled by his condition and have warned him that he will never be able to work again due to the danger of him collapsing unexpectedly.
Samuel,from Wisbech, Cambs, said: “Being told at 21 your working life is over means your own independence has completely gone.
“It is frustrating that the doctors don’t have any answers for me, I’m a bit of a medical conundrum, and it means I don’t know if there is a cure.”
Samuel does suffer from an abnormally high resting heart rate but doctors do not believe it is linked to his fainting.
He added: “You can always see my entire chest pounding as my heart is beating so fast and if you’re on the sofa next to me people tell me they can sometimes feel it.”
Samuel’s heart rate is always between 150 and 250 beats per minute – but the average speed should be less than 100 BPM.
For the last five years he has had to sleep with a fan by his bedside else he overheats in the night and wakes up in a pool of sweat.
He has suffered from heart problems for a number of years and he would collapse a couple of times but he would always get warning signs and feel faint.
But in the last six months he no longer feels dizzy beforehand and instead crashes hard into the ground at any point of the day without warning.
He said: “It’s like you’re in a boxing ring faced with the world’s best boxer who’s capable of knocking you out with one hit.
“But then you’re blindfolded and have headphones in so you know the punch is coming – you just don’t know when until you wake up on the floor in pain.
“It’s just a constant state of fear, waiting for it to happen and I can’t control it.”
Samuel doesn’t have a full diagnosis but has been told he has inappropriate sinus tachycardia (INS) which is where an individual’s resting heart rate is abnormally high.
But doctors are baffled at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge as they haven’t seen the black outs as a related symptom, so believe Samuel may have neurological problems too.
The nurses recognise him now as he is in so often for monitoring and occasionally he ends up having to stay in for up to a week.
Due to his condition Samuel has been told he can no longer work at the toy shop where he has spent the last six years loving his job.
He said: “I’m one of those people who loves going out and working, and I really did love my job.
“I can’t face sitting around doing nothing and even when I wasn’t at work, I was still working from home.”
But now he can’t leave the house without the fear of falling unconscious after he recently went face first into a metal filing cabinet and also fell down an escalator.
Samuel added: “At home there is always someone here checking up on me and I am getting an alarm system installed so I can be there alone.
“Usually it is for people aged over 65 so at my age it is hard to realise you are living the life of a pensioner.”
The doctors told Samuel the chances of his heart problems being solved are slim and he has had numerous MRI scans, an electroencephalogram (EEG) to test his brain activity, chest x-rays, and 24-hour holter monitoring to record his heart’s rhythms.
The medics haven’t been able to bring Samuel’s heart rate down and he has been given beta blockers and also adenosine – which is meant to slow the heart.
But the drug had a negative effect and instead his rapid heart rate increased and the doctors told Samuel they had never seen that happen before.
Samuel added: “It is new territory for them. When a new nurse sees me I have to explain how my fast heart rate is normal as they always look a bit concerned.”
Samuel and his girlfriend, Ashleigh Bainbridge, 17, are now trying to raise money for a service dog which will allow him to leave the house and give him some more of his independence back.
To donate to his Go Fund Me page, please visit www.gofundme.com/samuelc
