Franklin Aribeana, 35, has been hospitalized more than 20 times for a rare heart condition caused by drinking a glass of cold water. The Houston native first noticed the worrisome symptoms at age 18 while at the gym.
Doctors felt that the arrhythmia was triggered by cold water touching the vagus nerve, the part of the nervous system that regulates heart rate. A genetic aberration caused him to suffer from atrial fibrillation, a disruption of the electrical signals that causes it to beat at an unsynchronized rate.