In November 2010, the Lepkes opted to pay the extra money for an optional athletic heart screening for their son, Matt. The ultrasound test, through Transmed Inc.’s Screening America program, was offered by the Beresford School District. The Lepkes’ decision was more about supporting the sports program at the school, where Scott was the high school principal at the time, than it was about any concern for their son’s health.

“We never, ever thought that there was a problem with him. He’d been an athlete his whole life,” said Sarah of her 12-year-old son.

But the ultrasound revealed a life-threatening defect in Matt’s heart – a large hole between his left and right atrium that had been there since birth. So large, in fact, that it went undetected during routine physicals that might have caught smaller, noisier heart murmurs.

“That’s the thing with murmurs – the bigger they are, the less likely you are to catch them,” said Scott, who has been superintendent of the Custer School District since July. “His was so big, that it wasn’t making a noise.”

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Published 5/21/11 in the Daily Times

By RYAN LAWARENCE
ryanlawrence21@gmail.com

Occasionally a bond is developed between a fan and an athlete, a relationship that knows no bounds. A fellow Philadelphia-area journalist, Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com, shared a tale of meeting Harmon Killebrew, who passed away this week, as a boy. Decades after the two met outside the visiting dugout at Fenway Park, the boy-turned-baseball writer asked for a fresh autograph from the ballplayer-turned-Hall of Famer, as the two looked at the originally-autographed ball and shared stories of the past.

Social media connected two others last week: A 14-year-old Cincinnati Reds fan used Twitter to invite All-Star shortstop Brandon Phillips (@datdudebp) to his youth baseball game. Phillips, looking for something to do on his only night off until June 2, showed up and posed for pictures with members of the 14-U Cincinnati Flames.

Aidan Joseph Silva never had the chance to meet Ryan Howard. The seven-year-old boy died of sudden cardiac arrest over Labor Day weekend last summer. But Howard and Silva became connected recently.

Last Friday at Brandywine Wallace Elementary in Downingtown, where Silva had enrolled as a first-grader in August, the school held a dedication ceremony at the school in the boy’s honor. Five maple trees were planted and a plaque, with Aidan Silva’s name, his handprint and a family poem, was encased on a boulder.

Aidan J. Silva

Later, to the surprise of everyone in the school, Howard’s face appeared on a projection screen in the auditorium. Although Howard and the Phillies were in Atlanta, he had a message to deliver via video.

“I’m sorry for the loss of Aidan; I’ve heard he was a very upbeat and spirited kid and I know the loss is hard for everyone,” Howard said on the video. “The tribute you are doing today is awesome. I’m very honored to hear that I was Aidan’s favorite player. When I go out and take the field tonight, he’ll definitely be in my thoughts and prayers, and I’m going to go out there and do the best I can for Aidan.”

“It was really heartfelt,” said Steve Silva, Aidan’s father, who fought back tears throughout the ceremony, which included having Aidan’s five-year-old, younger brother introducing the Phillie Phanatic.

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Nick Varrenti loved football. He wore No. 58.

To sport his team spirit, Nick wore tall blue football socks every day to school. In 2004, over Labor Day weekend, the 16-year-old played his last game. He breathed his last breath.

Nicholas Dwain Varrenti died on Sept. 6, 2004, of sudden cardiac arrest. A former student at Heatherwood Middle School and Jackson High School in Mill Creek, he had moved to Mars, Penn., where he spent his childhood. He was a high school junior when he died.

A Pittsburgh Steelers fan, a prankster, the youngest of four children, Nick aspired to play college football — “if he had the grades,” his mother Darla Varrenti said Tuesday.

“Football was his life,” said Varrenti, who lives in Seattle. “He’d say the only reason he went to school was so he could play sports.”

Full story

For Christine Puricelli the death of her daughter Emilie has left a void in her life.

Christine Puricelli - video

Emilie Purcelli

Nancy Churnin – Reporter Bio

Autumn Reo of Arlington wants to raise awareness of Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week this week to help kids like her son Jackson. Valentine’s Day means so much to me and my loved ones. For one, I met my husband many years ago the same week as Valentine’s Day so in some ways it is an anniversary. Several years later this holiday would become another special anniversary for our family – as Feb. 7 – 14 is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week. And until 2008 I didn’t even know what a congenital heart defect was (CHD) until I was pregnant with our son, Jackson.

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Stuart Krug - Matt's Dad

By REID CHAMPAGNE • Special to The News Journal • February 4, 2010

In 2004, Christina Bennett, then a seventh-grade student at F. Niel Postlethwait Middle School in Camden, had just finished her gym class, where she admitted she had “overdone it.” Climbing to the top of a set of stairs after the class, she collapsed and her heart stopped. A teacher and nurse immediately grabbed the school’s Automated External Defibrillator (AED) and activated it. On the third attempt, they got Christina’s heart beating again. She was rushed to the hospital, where she remained for two months, and where a pacemaker was implanted in her chest.

 The news since then has all been good. Christina graduated from Caesar Rodney High School in 2009, and is now a spokeswoman for the Delaware Chapter of the American Heart Association. She will be attending Delaware Technical & Community College in the fall, and works two jobs to save money for college.

What happened to Christina was a medical accident, but the rapid, coordinated response that saved her life was not. The defibrillator that saved her life in middle school had been installed at Postlethwait two weeks earlier. Her resuscitation by the teacher and school nurse was the result of long-standing practice and standards for safety in public schools.

“Each public school maintains a crisis plan for students with special medical needs,” said Linda Wolfe, director of school support services within Delaware’s Department of Education. “That plan establishes a team composed of the school nurse as well as other school personnel trained in CPR.”

Wolfe said when a student emergency occurs, the team starts a series of detailed response protocols that are identified down to the level of who will call 911 and which teacher will fill the class vacated by the teacher or staffer responding to the emergency.

Wolfe said the Bennett case reflects how the nursing and medical standards developed by the education department are intended to work.

“Each public school maintains a registered nurse on staff, who must also have a [bachelor's] degree in nursing, completed certification requirements for school nursing and have three years of clinical nursing experience,” Wolfe said.

School nurses must also regularly maintain their CPR and defibrillator certification.

Today, every public and private school in Delaware with a student population of 75 or more has a defibrillator on school grounds and within easy access for emergencies. That was the goal set by the state’s Office of Emergency Medical Services in 2000.

“We’ve placed some 2100 [defibrillators] throughout the state over the last 10 years,” said Diane Hainsworth, Delaware’s paramedic administrator. In addition to all public and private schools, the devices have been placed in health and fitness centers, golf courses, senior centers, churches and other buildings where people assemble.

“We focused on schools primarily because of the frequency of public events occurring there that attract adult as well as student attendance,” Hainsworth said.

Wilmington resident Stewart Krug foundedthe Matthew Krug Foundation in honor of his 16-year-old son who died of cardiac arrest in 2001. He has been a devoted advocate of placing defibrillators in all public schools.

“With each minute that passes without treatment following a [sudden cardiac] attack, chances of survival are reduced anywhere from seven to 10 percent,” Krug said. “Brain death begins within just four to six minutes following [the attack].”

Having helped achieve his foundation’s vision of placing defibrillators in public and private schools, he remains at work on student-related safety, including free cardiac screenings and physical exams prior to participating in school sports. But Krug hasn’t taken his eye off defibrillators.

“There’s still the issue of making sure those units that are installed are maintained and charged on a regular basis,” he said.