Students get free heart screenings: ‘I want to be young forever,’ junior says

Published 11:33 am Wednesday, January 18, 2012

As she watched students flow through the doors of the Bothell High gym to get their free heart screenings, Darla Varrenti shook her head and smiled.

The male and female students — many of them athletes — walked by photos of a handful of athletes who died of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), including Varrenti’s son, Nick, who passed away seven years ago at the age of 16 after collapsing on the football field.

“I just want to check everything out and make sure I’m healthy so I can play sports,” said Bothell senior Ryan Carter, who plays football and soccer. Carter added that history teacher and track-and-field coach Cathy Boyce suggested that he and others get heart screenings.

Varrenti, the executive director of the Nick of Time Foundation out of Mill Creek, said that by the end of the day on Jan. 11, about 500 students from Bothell, Inglemoor and Woodinville high schools would receive heart screenings.

“We were completely taken off guard, so we thought it was something that people needed to know about,” Varrenti said. “A lot of times parents think that when they take their child for a physical or a sports physical, that everything is going to be covered, and it’s not.” She added that students need an electrocardiogram (electrical test, ECG) at the very least, and an echocardiogram (ultrasound test), as well.

According to the American Heart Association, one in every 350 young people has an undetected heart condition.

Jonathan Drezner, family medicine/sports medicine physician at the University of Washington and medical director of the Nick of Time Foundation, said that SCA is the leading cause of sudden death in young athletes and a significant cause of sudden death in youths.

“Most kids who die on the playing field actually have no warning symptoms before their first collapse, which is from sudden cardiac arrest,” he added. “So this type of screening provides a model where we can do not only history and physical, but also an ECG, which allows us to get more information about the heart.”

Carter, who works out regularly and eats healthy, said: “It’s unexpected. I wouldn’t imagine that happening to me, but it could easily, so I might as well get it checked out and make sure it doesn’t happen to me.”

About 120 volunteers attended the event from the University of Washington, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Swedish Medical Center, Cardiac Science, Sonosite, Physio-Control, Bothell Fire and EMT, Woodinville Fire and Shoreline EMT and Valley Regional Fire Authority. (Some of those organizations also provided equipment.) The 25-minute screenings included a stop at the blood-pressure station, heart screenings, ECGs, a visit to the automated-external-defibrillator and cardiopulmonary-resuscitation awareness station and then a consultation with one of the doctors.

Varrenti said they’re adamant that the screenings are free.

“We want to make sure that a parent doesn’t have to decide between paying the electric bill and sending their child to get their heart checked, so they can make sure it’s safe,” she said.

Bothell juniors Dakotah Bloss, a cheerleader, and Mimi McDonald, an alto saxophonist in the marching band, were two of the girls on hand for their heart screenings.

Bloss’ cheer coach Andy Gault encouraged the girls to get screenings: “The entire cheer team’s here; our coach is like, ‘I want to make sure you guys are all good.’ In cheerleading, I’ve seen girls just pass out during competition routines — that’s scary. I don’t want that to happen to me or to anyone I know.”

A steady diet of running and P90X workouts is what helps keep Bloss’ endurance rolling, and she eats healthy, just like her classmate Carter.

So why did so many students show up for the free heart screenings?

“We care about our health and want to make sure we can continue to be strong,” Bloss said. “I want to be young forever.”