From Curse to Career
Cardiac mapper turned treatment of his own heart condition into a new career NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / November 3, 2025 / David Stalls thought the dangerous heart rhythm problem that plagued his health was a curse-until he turned treating …
Cardiac mapper turned treatment of his own heart condition into a new career
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / November 3, 2025 / David Stalls thought the dangerous heart rhythm problem that plagued his health was a curse-until he turned treating it into a new career.
"It's gotten me to where I am today so I'm actually thankful," he laughed.
An emergency room nurse in Tennessee, Stalls lived with the chaotic, fluttering heart rhythms of atrial fibrillation (Afib) for years. He knew Afib increased his risk of stroke and heart failure.
"I was in and out of Afib. Mostly out. So I just tried to forget about it. But after a while I couldn't sleep and I didn't have enough energy to even play with our kids in the yard," he said.
The Afib episodes became longer and more severe. Doctors twice shocked his heart back to normal rhythm but the irregular heartbeats soon returned. In the spring of 2016, doctors at the Memphis hospital where he worked performed an ablation using Medtronic cryoablation technology.
Life changing moment
The ablation changed Stalls' life in more ways than one.
"I hadn't fully realized just how much Afib had affected me until I started feeling better," he said. "I could run and play soccer with the kids. I felt great and I still do."
Doctors told him afterward that the first step in the procedure was to make a digital map of his heart's electrical activity. They invited him to step out of the ER some time and watch a case. "I floated over to the lab one afternoon and watched from the control room," he said. "I had no idea what the mappers were doing but it was cool. I remember thinking ‘I can do that.'"
So he did-turning the treatment for his heart problem into his life's work.
Passionate about helping others
Stalls leveraged his nursing background and a recommendation from a doctor he knew at his hospital and got hired by a Medtronic competitor to become a cardiac mapper. The training took a year.
"It was intense. The hardest training I've ever taken," he said.
Stalls spent the first five years of his mapping career at a Medtronic competitor. He mapped thousands of hearts and worked with dozens of electrophysiologists-including Dr. David Lan, the same EP who performed his ablation in 2016.
"David has mapped at least 100 procedures with me," said Dr. Lan. "He's an excellent mapper. He's passionate about helping people. He's a very hard worker and he's always available. I'm very proud of him."

