Chelsea Green has opened up about the heart condition that led to her undergoing emergency surgery earlier this year, revealing she feared suffering a potentially fatal episode during a WWE match.
Speaking on TMZ’s Inside The Ring, the former WWE Women’s United States Champion reflected on living with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) for a decade before finally receiving treatment in May 2026. Chelsea Green explained that doctors were only able to diagnose the condition after her heart rate suddenly spiked to 228 beats per minute while she was sitting at a Fanatics signing.
“I was sitting doing a signing. I hadn’t had an energy drink; I hadn’t been drinking coffee. I was just sitting there relaxing, hanging out with the Fanatics guys, and my heart rate jumped up to 228 beats per minute at a resting state.”
She said the episode lasted for more than 10 minutes, allowing paramedics to perform an ECG that confirmed the condition and led to emergency SVT ablation surgery just days later.
Chelsea Green admitted her biggest concern was that an episode could occur while she was wrestling in front of thousands of fans.
“That was my fear, is that if it started in the ring, was it ever going to stop? I cannot be in the ring in front of 10 or 20,000 people and go into tachycardia and still finish a match. The risk of death is obviously huge.”
She revealed the episode was detected on a Saturday before she underwent surgery the following Wednesday or Thursday.
Chelsea Green Said Surgery Was ‘Very Traumatic’
Chelsea Green also described the operation itself as one of the most traumatic experiences of her life, revealing she was woken up while doctors were still operating so they could induce tachycardia and confirm the procedure had been successful.
“When I finally was in surgery, or going into surgery, I think that’s when everything really hit. The process of going to get that surgery, walking in through those doors, having it explained to me, being on the table, being woken up mid-surgery for them to send you into tachycardia to then prove that the surgery they did would help you, all of that was very, very traumatic.”
Green added that she experienced what she described as PTSD after the operation because of being awake during part of the procedure while the surgery was still taking place.
“When I came out of it, I had, like, weird PTSD of being in that surgery and being woken up while still on the table and having them still operate.”
