Published: July 29, 2025
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Lance Newman of Louisville is many things — a poet, artist, father, weekend athlete and more. He founded SpreadLove Enterprises to bring joy to others by way of giving back and encouraging others in positive ways. All of that almost changed in an instant, and now he can add something to the list of things that describe him: grateful to be alive.
On a typical Saturday in June 2024, he was playing basketball with his friends when he jumped up for a rebound. He then collapsed, not moving. Destany Balata, R.N., a nurse manager at Norton Hospital who happened to be watching the game, was at his side in seconds and began assessing Lance’s vital signs. His pulse began to fade, and she began CPR to restart his heart. Watching from the sidelines were Lance’s 12-year-old daughter and numerous others who began to pray.
An ambulance arrived 10 minutes later and transported Lance to Norton Audubon Hospital, where the Norton Heart & Vascular Institute team began assessing him.
Lance was 36 and very active — not your typical heart patient. Why would his heart stop?
“We don’t always know what causes an issue that makes the heart beat irregularly and even stop like Lance’s did,” said Kevin M. Thomas, M.D., electrophysiologist with Norton Heart & Vascular Institute. “But in Lance’s situation, we knew we wanted to give him the tools to keep him active and prevent issues going forward.”
Lance became the first patient in Louisville to receive a new extravascular implantable cardioverter defibrillator (EV-ICD), a device that operates similarly to traditional internal cardiac defibrillators but is not inserted directly into the heart. It is smaller than other devices, and the battery also sits on the side of the chest rather than near the collarbone, making it less visible. If the device detects an irregular heartbeat, it delivers a small electrical signal to the heart to correct it before delivering a full shock. All of these features are beneficial to a relatively young heart patient with an irregular heartbeat.
“I think that this is the future of device-based therapy — smaller devices that are outside of the veins and outside of the heart, but still give us the full capability to treat the patient the way that that the standard legacy pacemaker or defibrillator would have in the past,” Dr. Thomas said.
Now Lance is living with a new focus.
“Right after I received the ICD, I actually discovered how it worked,” Lance said. “I had another episode where I collapsed. The ICD shocked me and resuscitated me.
“While the doctors aren’t sure why my heart stopped, I’m not taking anything for granted. I am watching my blood pressure, taking my medication and sharing the message to everyone around me — our health is too valuable.”