Student-Athlete's Death Puts Spotlight on Heart Screening

The death of Michigan high school basketball player Wes Leonard last week from cardiac arrest due to an enlarged heart has brought to light the need for heart screening in schools.

What will never be known is whether screening may have saved Leonard's life. But, parents with students in local high schools can be reassured that screenings are already taking place here.

The death of a student athlete a few years ago in prompted a school official to build a partnership that would provide screenings for students.

After the death of a student athlete, Jason Altenbern, coordinator of community relations for District 204, began researching what would be required for the district to offer a program to its large high school student population.

Altenbern followed the lead of Naperville District 203, which already had started a program. But the sheer size and student population of District 204 initially made a screening program appear challenging.

Hundreds of volunteers, including 600 parents and district employees, however, helped make the program possible.

Just last week Altenbern presented an update on the program to the district’s board of education.

“Upon hearing the unfortunate passing of Wes Leonard this weekend, I am increasingly thankful for District 204’s partnership with the Midwest Heart Foundation and for bringing their Young Hearts For Life screening program to our high schools this year,” Altenbern said in an e-mail.

The heart screening program takes place every other year in District 204 and is under way this term. Students at Metea Valley High School were screened in February and screening will take place at , March 22-23, , April 14-15 and at Neuqua Valley High School’s Gold Campus on April 21.

Testing will take place in next year, said John Fiore, instructional coordinator for the Wellness Department at .

Every year the testing is done in District 203 there are students who are recommended to follow up with their doctor, Fiore said.

"It's not a matter of if, it's about who," he said.

Roughly 30 young people die every week from a sudden cardiac death, according to the Young Hearts for Life website. And roughly 40 percent of young adults at risk for sudden death may have problems detected with an electrocardiogram (ECG).

As reported in a , the Midwest Heart Foundation, under the direction of Dr. Joseph Marek, a clinical cardiologist with Midwest Heart Specialists, created the program offering free ECGs to high school students in area schools.

The tests determine if students are at risk for sudden cardiac death and specific heart conditions such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the leading cause of death in young athletes.

The 16-year-old Leonard had an enlarged heart, which a medical examiner determined may have contributed to his death, according to news reports.

Locally, the Young Hearts for Life Cardiac Screening Program, travels to different schools offering the free screening. Doctors donate their time to read the test results, and community volunteers are trained to perform the screening.

When the screenings were offered in 2009 to District 204 students more than 5,700 were screened, Altenbern said. Of those students screened it was determined that 113 required additional testing. Altenbern said at least one parent reported “this screening saved her son’s life.”

This year it is expected that more than more than 6,350 students, or 75 percent of the population in district high schools, will be screened, according to information Altenbern presented to the board.

Midwest Heart officials put the cost of screening at about $70 per student, which if students were paying out of pocket would have amount to a cost of roughly $400,000 in 2009. The estimated cost of the program in District 204 is $50,000, which is offset through fundraising efforts and partnerships, Altenbern said.

“We appreciate the support of the Indian Prairie Educational Foundation, , our parent-teacher associations, and our many parent volunteers," he said.

"With everybody working together, we can host this important initiative in our high schools to which our goal is to build awareness of sudden cardiac death. Any time a school loses a student it is a tragedy.”