Teens CAN Have Heart Attacks

It was my pleasure this past Saturday to participate in a small way in the Championship Hearts Foundation screening at Midland Memorial Hospital in Midland, Texas.  Championship Hearts Foundation is a 501 (C) 3 foundation that was originally chartered as the Austin Heart Foundation.  One of several missions this foundation has is to educate people, including young people, about heart disease and the risks associated with heart disease.  The founders of Championship Hearts was a group of Austin and Central Texas cardiologists.  Besides education, one of their concerns was the number of young athletes in the Texas public school system who collapsed and died during sports events and workouts.  Many of these young people were found to have heart disease, in particular hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which, in the simplest terms that I can understand, is a hardening of the walls that can lead to obstructed blood flow and erratic heartbeat.  This disease, though detected easily through the heart screening process, usually has no noticeable symptoms.  By the way, the disease is not limited to football players.  A few years ago, a member of a Central Texas high school marching band passed out during rehearsal and died within minutes.

So this past Saturday I manned a small booth and mostly stayed out of the way while about two hundred young athletes from all over West Texas took part in the Championship Hearts screening.  This screening was provided free of charge by the Championship Hearts Foundation.  A highlight of the day was when the entire athletic group (and maybe some band members) from a rural school district arrived for the screening.  For awhile there was moderated chaos while the large group was processed.  By the time the screening ended, there were a lot of tired volunteers, but the sore feet were rewarded by the knowledge that so many young people had been screened for heart disease.  Many of these students would not have had the opportunity for this screening otherwise.

Epilogue:
I found out today that the exact number screened on Saturday was one-hundred seventy-six young men and women.  These are good numbers, but another statistic emerged today that really made it all worthwhile.  It turns out that out of less then two hundred teenagers who participated in the screening process, six teens were found to have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.  It took just a minute for it to sink in.  What it means is that in one screening one day in one city, six lives were potentially saved.  That is good news.  It becomes great news when we realize that hundreds of young people all over Texas participated in similar screening events, with similar results.  To parents of teens who are participating in band, cheer leading, football, basketball, and other sports, I urge you to take your children to one of these events.  You may have so much to do on a Saturday morning, but I promise you, one screening will only take about an hour...and your child is worth that one hour.  And it costs nothing but your time.  My thanks to the Heart Championship Foundation, and to all the local volunteers, for a job well done.