Teen with heart condition raised $ to fund swim team

SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. (WTNH) -- A high school student will stop at nothing to keep swimming. Her South Windsor High School team didn't have a team so she helped a fund raising effort to form a team and then she developed a potentially fatal condition but is still swimming.

Kelly Wentworth is a teenager.

"Messy room," asked Sports Team 8's John Pierson.

"Oh yes," replied Kathy Wentworth, Kelly's mom.

"But I clean my bathroom," Kelly said.

And she's learning to drive.

"I've done pretty well, but I did hit a car," Kelly said, "a parked car. I mixed up the break and gas"

She also has a weird celebrity crush.

"Bill Aman," Kelly said, "he's state rep. for the state of Connecticut."

However, there is nothing she loves more than swimming.

"I was terrible at first, absolutely terrible," Kelly said, "but I worked a lot and got better."

She got so good that when she was around 10, she was the best in the state at the sprint freestyle.

"It's the stroke where you go like this," Kelly exampled.

On the surface, everything seems fine in the 16-year-old's life.

"I always think to myself she's the healthiest looking sickest kid you'll ever see," Kathy said.

Her sickness came out of nowhere, just a few years ago, when Kelly was swimming as a freshman.

"I suddenly collapsed at a swim meet and I got a bad concussion," Kelly said. "I missed an entire season, came back and did it again, then again."

It took some nerve racking time, but finally doctors at the Boston Childrens Hospital diagnosed the problem.

It was Kelly's heart.

"I was having episodes of arrhythmia caused by super ventricular tachycardia," Kelly said.

"Its the top of the heart beating rapidly," Kathy said.

Espisodes happen suddenly. At home, on the bus, in school or in the pool. Kelly says they're freaky and she can feel them coming.

Family and friends have emergency plans.

"I found out about a month ago that my freshman year my friend Stephanie and other friends of mine made a specific plan of emergency action if I ever fainted while I was in the pool or on deck," Kelly said. "They each had specific roles, one got the AED, one called 911, one got the coach. It was pretty cool cause I didn't know about it and they just did it to make sure I was okay."

Doctors are searching for a permanent fix. They've tried medicines and surgeries, hoping to help this inspiring and determined young lady.

"She's always been one to take a challenge and go with it," John Wentworth said. "It's what makes her a good athlete and what she is in school, she has that inner drive to get it done."

"She obviously has a passion and is willing to risk her life to be able to do what she loves," said Lauren Branscombe, Kelly's teammate.