Benefit set for Chinook teen recovered from rare disease

Aug. 11, 2017, 17-year-old Steven Mulonet became dizzy and light headed. Several hours later, he was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome while at Northern Montana Hospital in Havre.

Steven didn't think much of the dizziness at first.

"I got really dizzy. I laid down, but it didn't work," he said.

Despite not feeling well, Steven tried to carry on that day. He stopped by the store on his way to swim practice.

"The cashiers noticed something wrong and told him to sit down as he was looking very pale," said Steven's mother, Colleen Mulonet.

The store employees told Steven he could not leave the store until someone picked him up, Colleen Mulonet said. Steven called his aunt to let her know he needed a ride. She took him over to the local medical personnel to have his blood pressure and pulse taken, "which was very high for a 17-year-old very active young man" at 180/114 and pulse 110.

Steven ended up at Northern Montana Hospital that evening, where the emergency room doctor collaborated with a cardiologist at Benefis Medical in Great Falls. An EKG revealed Steven had WPW syndrome.

According to mayoclinic.org, WPW syndrome is when an extra electrical pathway between the heart's upper and lower chambers causes a rapid heartbeat.

Colleen Mulonet said Steven made an appointment with a Great Falls cardiologist and, in the meantime, her son was told to stay away from caffeine. If his pulse started to race he was to blow into his hand "like a balloon" to lower his pulse, she said.

For the next 11 days, Colleen Mulonet said, she dug up everything the internet had to offer about WPW. She was incredulous something like this could happen to her son, someone so active.

"Looking at the information on the internet, this can't be. This is my active kid," she said. "This can't be."

She learned from doctors that Steven probably always had it and that it wasn't hereditary. She also learned it was rare.

Steven, however, was a little less concerned than his mother.

"(The doctors) told me not to worry about it, so I didn't," he said.

The family took a road trip to Seattle in December, where Steven received radiofrequency ablation treatment.

"Radiofrequency ablation is a procedure that uses a thin catheter threaded through your blood vessels and heart, destroying the tissue where the extra electrical current is coming from. This permanently fixes the issue in most folks," Colleen Mulonet said.

Steven's WPW is now in remission, son and mother said. In June they will find out if he's completely cured.

Steven says he feels good and hasn't experienced any more symptoms. For him, it's out of mind out of body.

During the month he visited Seattle, Steven did something that lends further credence to how little he is bothered by anything. He had his hair cut into a mullet.

Steven said he had long hair, but not a mullet. Other students accused him of having a mullet.

"So I gave them something to really complain about," he said.

Steven said he cut his hair into a bona-fide mullet. He plans on keeping it until summer, when swimming starts.

The Mulonets are having a benefit Friday at the Eagles in Chinook to cover some of the cost incurred during the trip to Seattle and the treatment. Colleen Mulonet said she hasn't received any bills from her insurance, but she anticipates there'll be costs not covered.

There will be a free-will donation dinner of sloppy joes, baked beans, cole slaw, chips and desserts that starts at 5 p.m. People can also donate to First Bank of Montana in Chinook to the Steven J's Benefit.