April 9, 2007 - 7000 HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS LINE UP TO BE SCREENED FOR RISK OF SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH
7000 HIGH
SCHOOL STUDENTS LINE UP TO BE SCREENED FOR RISK OF SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH
What: Young Hearts for Life™ Cardiac Screening
When: April
12th and 13th, April 19th and 20th
Where:
The loss of a
child is devastating for a community. What if these deaths could be prevented
in the future?
An army of
community volunteers including parents, school teachers and local hospital
personnel are joining Midwest Heart Foundation on a mission to prevent the
death of young adults through the Young Hearts for Life™ Cardiac Screening
program.
Each week sudden
cardiac death claims the lives of more than 6 young adults in the
One
of the most common objections raised by American medical groups to adding a
routine screening to sports physicals is that about 10 percent of abnormal
findings will result in false positive test results, requiring those students
to undergo further testing only to be told an abnormality is not present.
Young
Hearts for Life Cardiac Screening™ created by Midwest Heart Foundation is a
screening program designed to identify students at risk for sudden cardiac
death. Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common cause of sudden
death in young adults comprising more than one-third of cases. HCM is a genetic
abnormality present in approximately one in 500 people.
Joseph Marek M.D.,
a research cardiologist with Midwest
Heart Specialists and member of the Board of Directors of the Midwest Heart Foundation (MHF), has
made this screening program available to thousands of students in
An
electrocardiogram (abbreviated ECG or EKG), which records the heart’s
electrical activity detects certain impulse patterns or “markers” associated
with HCM that a stethoscope cannot. HCM enlarges the left ventricle of the
heart, which in turn can trigger fatal heart-rhythm disturbances.
“Early detection
is essential; you cannot treat what has not been diagnosed,” explains Dr.
Marek.
Page 2 : Young
Hearts for Life™ Cardiac Screening
Midwest Heart Foundation,
in partnership with Downers Grove District 99, has scheduled the next Young
Hearts for Life™ Cardiac Screening beginning at 7:45a.m. on Thursday, April 12th
and Friday, April 13th at Downers Grove North High School and April
19th and 20th at Downers Grove South High School. An estimated 5600 hundred students are
expected to participate in these screenings. "It has become a partnership between the
community," said Deb Marszalek, a nurse and parent who is recruiting volunteers
for the District 99 South High screening.
“We have volunteers throughout the community, large numbers of parents,
quite a few grandparents, neighbors with
no children who are taking the day off and members of the
Two additional
area high schools,
To date over 4000
high school students have been screened through the Young Hearts for Life™
program. Last fall Midwest Heart Foundation partnered with
In the next two years,
Midwest Heart Foundation has a goal of testing 58,000 high school students in
Young
Hearts for Life™ Cardiac Screening seeks to raise public awareness of HCM and
sudden cardiac death. In presentations before school groups, Dr. Marek asks the
audience to imagine the unbearable pain parents of young athletes with
undiagnosed HCM experience after receiving a phone call from the coroner
notifying them that their son or daughter died suddenly. He concludes, “As a
parent, can you imagine anything worse?”
###
* The Wall
Street Journal Online, “Case Grows for Screening Young Athletes For
Dangerous Heart Conditions,” by Kevin Helliker and Kathryn Kranhold, June
21,2005. The Wall Street Journal Online, “Doctors Miss Signs of
Heart Defects In Young Athletes,” by Kevin Helliker and Kathryn Kranhold, June
23,2005. The New York Times—On The Web, “
Midwest Heart Foundation is a nonprofit research and education
foundation dedicated to improving the prevention and management of
cardiovascular and related diseases through research, education, and community
leadership. It was established in 1988 by the physicians of