Extreme diver: 90 feet up, on fire — with a heart problem

Zach Meece has been taking leaps — make that dives — of faith for the past five years.

Dives from 90 feet in the air into nine-and-a-half-feet of water ... while his body is on fire.

Each time, he holds his breath and wonders: "Am I going to be OK three seconds from now?"

It's not just the dive height or the flames engulfing him that he wonders about. It's his heart.

"When I had my heart procedure, it opened my eyes. I don't know how long I'm going to be here," said Meece, 24. "There are things I know I probably push myself too much (on), but I'm still here and my heart's still ticking."

A former diver at Beech Grove High School, Meece has endured numerous health scares because he has Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. That means he has an extra electrical pathway between his heart's upper chambers and lower chambers, according to the Mayo Clinic. The condition can cause a rapid heartbeat and, sometimes, loss of consciousness. Cardiac arrest or stroke are possible.

At age 18 and 19, he had heart surgeries to try to ease the problem.

He could, and probably should, have given up diving. Instead, Meece does something heart-stopping even for those without his medical history: stunt diving.

After high school, he sought out an opportunity to dive professionally, training with a company called Brown Entertainment and participating in shows around the world for five years. Meece has done stunt dives in China, Hong Kong, Dubai and all over the United States.

And now, he's set to dive in front of millions on "America's Got Talent."

Meece taped his stunt for the NBC show this spring and is waiting to see when his episode will air. The show hasn't told him yet, but extreme acts are planned for Tuesday and Meece is hoping to see himself then.

"It's never something that you really get used to. A high dive, every single high dive, it's pretty much, 'Am I going to be OK three seconds from now?' " Meece said. "But it's a feeling I can't really describe. It's scary. It's adrenaline."

It's something Meece knew he wanted to do his entire life.

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He and his mom, Tammy Shockey, used to spend countless summer days at Holiday World in southern Indiana.

Instead of riding the rides, as a daredevil kid like Meece might have been expected to do, he sat in a seat hour upon hour.

"He would always want to watch the diving shows," Shockey said. "He would watch every show that came on that day and they came on every hour on the hour."

Meece sat in awe, studying the moves, the divers' forms.

"I remember being this kid looking up at these high divers and thinking, 'I would like to really do this some day,' " he said.

His mom took his childhood dream seriously and bought a trampoline for the backyard of their Indianapolis home.

"He would do all these different flips and tape himself doing acrobatic stuff, wild crazy things," she said. "I thought, 'He's going to break his neck.' "

Signs of his heart troubles started to show up when he was diving in middle school and high school. His heart would beat fast or irregularly. He would get light-headed. He would turn white.

It kicked in with no warning. He could just be sitting in a car and an episode would happen.

Then at a diving practice in high school, he passed out. The coach called an ambulance.

Doctor visits and an echocardiogram revealed the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. The syndrome is congenital and pretty rare, found in about 4 of every 100,000 people, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Surgery was needed immediately. In November 2008, when Meece was a senior in high school, he underwent a grueling, six-hour open heart surgery at St. Francis Hospital.

"I can't say enough about my son, everything he has done, everything he has been through," said Shockey.

Within days of surgery, Meece was back on the diving board. Weeks later, he was competing in the Marion County swimming and diving meet at the Natatorium at IUPUI.

But a year later, the heart troubles came back and Meece had a second surgery.

His diving job has led to other scares. Meece, who wears a bodysuit for fire dives, was badly burned performing one in China. He was crushed on a trampoline in New York, breaking all of his ribs and collapsing his lungs.

"He still came back strong as ever," Shockey said.

Then, one day not long ago, Meece decided it was time to slow down.

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He now lives in West Palm Beach, Fla., where he has his own company, Zach Meece Diving & Stunts, giving lessons and training divers. He also works at a health care institute.

Meece's heart condition is not as severe now.

"But it's still there," he said. He sees a cardiologist regularly and carries a card alerting people to his condition.

He's scaled back on full-time stunt diving, but in no way is giving it up. He expects to do part-time gigs as his schedule allows.

And there is something about that heart of Meece's that his mom wants people to know, something that's not about surgeries or heartbeats.

"He has a heart of gold," Shockey said. "He's taken that heart of gold and come out on top."

Follow Dana Benbow on Twitter:@DanaBenbow.