AN ANDOVER woman who has doubled her lifespan with an implantable defibrillator is undergoing an unusual operation to replace parts of the box today.

Karen Taylor is due today to St George’s Hospital, Tooting, to have most of the leads of her internal defibrillator extracted and the box itself moved into her shoulder from her abdomen.

The Crescent resident said she first had the box implanted in 1993 after she was diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (AVRC) - a rare disease which affects heart muscle.

Mrs Taylor says that after 24 years the leads are breaking down so they need to be replaced and so the box will also be moved during the procedure.

Before she was diagnosed, the 50-year-old said: “At its worst my heart rate was doing 360bpm, which was shown on a 24-hour Holter monitor.

“My heart my was bouncing out of my chest like Popeye but I didn’t faint - it was palpitations gone mad.

“I was quite fit but not an athlete.

“I played squash and went running until I had my cardiac arrest when I was 25 and in my last year of my degree at Bath University.

“Since then I tend to keep it to sedate exercise – swimming, yoga and walking. “I’ve nearly had 25 years more than I should have, so I’m a very lucky girl.”

The Andover resident worked full-time until last year and now works three days a week as a careers advisor at Newbury College.

Ahead of her operation, Mrs Taylor said: “This is a very precarious operation and the surgeons haven’t got a great deal of experience of lead extraction.

“It should have been in my shoulder but all those years ago it was quite a big box and they put it in my abdomen.

“I’m terrified because I’ve still got so much more I want to do and I know there’s a risk.

“But these things happen but you can still have a life worth living.”