Detroit's Raiola fine after heart procedure

By Curt Sylvester
Knight Ridder News Service

DETROIT — Dominic Raiola says it's no big deal.

A week ago he was getting over a surgical procedure on his heart. This week he's getting ready for three hours of mayhem with Atlanta Falcons defensive tackles.

No big deal at all.

"I'm fine now," the Saint Louis School and University of Nebraska alum said yesterday. "It's like nothing ever happened."

For years — from college through his first three seasons as the Lions' center — Raiola played football with an out-of-control heartbeat that hit upward of 180 beats per minute.

"It was uncomfortable, but I played with it since my first years in college," he said. "I wouldn't get lightheaded. It would just beat real fast, and I'd start sweating. It was something different."

Quarterback Joey Harrington experienced a similar incident late in his rookie year, underwent a surgical procedure to correct the problem and says he has had no recurrence of the racing heartbeat.

It was decided during the off-season by the Lions' medical staff that it would be in Raiola's best interest to have the same procedure. He did, but the problem came back after he got to training camp, so it was decided they would try again during the bye week.

Doctors ran electrical wires through blood vessels from his groin area up into the heart and — according to Raiola's explanation — singed the area that was shorting out and causing the rapid heartbeat.

He expects no additional problems and says there is no reason he can't play Sunday in Atlanta, regardless of the stress on his body.

"You hear of a heart procedure and you think, 'It's hurting my heart,' but it's got nothing to do with my heart," Raiola said. "It's basically an IV going through my veins, and that's the main thing that has to heal, and that's already healed. They basically burned everything out."

With the heart procedure out of the way, he can focus on making the blocks that will enable the Lions to move the football against the Atlanta defense.

"We just have to play better than we did against Philly (two weeks ago), come out looser, not get in a hole," he said. "Then we can execute more of the game plan. We obviously wanted to run the ball more, but when you get in a 21-0 hole, you have to pass to try to play catch-up."