There are a lot of different types of irregular heartbeats that someone may get, some more serious than others. It sounds like your friend either had an ICD placed- which is designed to shock the heart out of an irregular rhythm if it goes into it. This doesn't necessarily fix the problem, it just corrects the problem when it happens. It's also possible he has a pacemaker- which is designed to instruct the heart to beat regularly, Derosa can have any number of different irregular heartbeats that can vary in severity. It is reassuring that he has had this before and still managed to be a productive player. Therefore, I am less worried. it sounds like he had catheter ablation, which is a procedure meant to destroy certain irregular electrical pathways, as svt is sometimes caused by an abnormal or "unauthorized" electrical channel that interferes with the hearts primary one, causing the heart to beat out of rythm. doesn't sound like he had a procedure to shock his heart back into a normal rythm, at least, that's the way i interpreted it. you may be right about that. i don' tremember all the details