Simon's Fund » Nonprofits

Brandon Jennings Invitational

dsudman — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:38:03 +0000

Feleica Stewart thought she had no reason to worry. There was no history of heart disease in her family. In fact, longevity was the trend. Her grandmother lived to 90. Her mother lived to 82.

To top it off, she was a nurse and John, her son, was the picture of good health, and at 7 foot 4, 305 pounds, he was set to play college basketball at Kentucky . . . until he passed out and died of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) 13 years ago. He was 18.

“Kids have been dying from this disease for years,” Stewart said. “I wish a parent would have taken up the issue a long time ago, then I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in. He would have had early detection.”

Stewart’s son was a victim of sudden cardiac arrest, the leading cause of death among young athletes. About 100 die per year from the condition and thousands more children die of heart conditions.

The issue will be at the forefront of the second annual Brandon Jennings boys basketball invitational, which is scheduled Saturday beginning at noon at Milwaukee Marquette.

Throughout the day, Stewart, the executive director of the John H. Stewart Foundation, as well as representatives from the Close the Gap Foundation, an educational initiative aimed at reducing disparities in cardiovascular care for women and minorities and raising awareness of sudden cardiac arrest, will be on hand spreading the word about heart health issues. Free blood pressure screenings will be available.

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Over Foundation Checks Hearts and Saves Lives

dsudman — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:54:33 +0000

Congrats to our friends in PA, Nick Over Foundation, for checking hearts and saving lives.

Nicholas Ryan Over had seemed like a perfectly healthy 20-year-old. ”He was like a lot of youths,” said his mother Cris Over. “On the outside he was fine. He was working part-time and going to college. He was living the life of a normal 20-year-old.”

What the Carlisle family didn’t know was that Nick had an undiagnosed heart condition called Arrhythmagenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia (ARVD), a rare condition in which the right ventricle fills up with scar tissue. On April 8, 2001, Nick had a sudden cardiac arrest in his sleep and never woke up.

His death had shaken the family who had no idea that Nick even had a problem with his heart. Nick had played soccer in school and he never had any dizzy spells. There were no warning signs and no symptoms. The only thing that could’ve caught Nick’s heart condition was a cardiac screening, and Cris Over is dedicated to making sure no other family is taken by surprise again.

Over and her husband George started the Nicholas Ryan Over Foundation a year after Nick’s death, and the two have been working diligently to do what they can to prevent deaths involving sudden cardiac arrest, including providing automated external defibrillator (AEDs) to schools in the Carlisle area.

Paredes Foundation is Checking Hearts and Saving Lives

dsudman — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:51:28 +0000

Great piece about our friends on the West Coast saving lives in memory of their son, Eric.

Eric Paredes’ story is not unlike Wes Leonard’s, the Fennville High basketball star who collapsed and died in Michigan last March of sudden cardiac arrest minutes after hitting the game-winning overtime shot.

Paredes, like Leonard, was an otherwise healthy athlete who had an undetected ticking time bomb — a heart abnormality — that triggered his death.

Paredes was 15. He was a hip-hop dancer for Culture Shock Dance Company. He was a football player with his sights set on making the junior varsity squad at Steele Canyon High. He was a wrestler who was expected to move up to varsity.

But his life ended on July 23, 2009, the summer before his sophomore year. Paredes had been home alone when his father found him collapsed on the kitchen floor, a victim of sudden cardiac death.

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Quinnipiac U Hoops for Hearts

dsudman — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 01:47:14 +0000

HAMDEN, Conn. – The Quinnipiac University men’s and women’s basketball teams welcomed the Hoops For Heart Health organization to TD Bank Sports Center on Tuesday morning, a foundation founded by National Basketball Association (NBA) star, Ryan Gomes. Hoops For Heart Health is a not-for-profit association that was established to address the problem of Sudden Cardiac Arrest in high school, collegiate and professional sports. Quinnipiac’s men’s and women’s basketball teams are the first in NCAA Division I basketball to partake in the training session.

Gomes, now a member of the Los Angeles Clippers, founded the organization in 2005, after the unexpected death of his friend, Stanley Myers. “I started Hoops For Heart Health to bring together the basketball community in order to raise awareness to the growing problem of Sudden Cardiac Arrest in student athletes,” says Gomes. “If we can save just one life, it makes all of our efforts worthwhile.”

The morning consisted of various activities to educate student-athletes about Sudden Cardiac Arrest. The two teams received guidance from representatives, Ryan Gomes, Rachel Moyer and Wayne Simone, who instructed them on proper ways to use Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and the Heimlich maneuver. In addition, team members learned how to use a Portable Defibrillator to treat victims of Sudden Cardiac Arrest.

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Foundation Screens 50,000 Hearts

darren — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 11:26:25 +0000

Simon’s Fund would like to thank Dr. Joe Marek and the Midwest Heart Foundation for showing the world that checking hearts is relatively easy, affordable and effective. Thanks for checking hearts and saving lives!

Heart foundation gives 50,000th free screening at Glenbard South

The milestone passed with little fanfare. But school officials, parents and area doctors volunteering at Glenbard South High School on Thursday say its significance should not be overlooked.

In the early afternoon, volunteers administered the 50,000th heart screening at the Glen Ellyn school in a 4-year-old program that offers the free screenings to high school students throughout the region. One of the program’s creators, Dr. Joseph Marek, said working with the age group means dealing with a delicate balance of making sure the students are aware but not worried. “The kids should be enjoying their social life, said Marek, a cardiologist who helped start Young Hearts for Life. “But you do have to tell them to look both ways when you cross the street. This should be along those same lines.

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Child's Death Motivates Family to Provide Free Heart Screening

darren — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:35:59 +0000

Wednesday, August 04, 2010
By Jessica Ryen Doyle

As millions of teenagers get ready to go back to school this month, Jim and Sheila Fisher are urging parents to be extra vigilant when setting up their children’s school or athletic physicals. As millions of teenagers get ready to go back to school this month, Jim and Sheila Fisher are urging parents to be extra vigilant when setting up their children’s school or athletic physicals.

Two years ago, the Fishers’ son, Sean, died suddenly of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, an abnormal thickening of the heart’s walls.

Sometimes referred to as sudden death syndrome, the genetic condition often goes undiagnosed because most people who have it lead normal lives without signs or symptoms. For some patients, the first symptom literally is death.

As millions of teenagers get ready to go back to school this month, Jim and Sheila Fisher are urging parents to be extra vigilant when setting up their children’s school or athletic physicals.

Two years ago, the Fishers’ son, Sean, died suddenly of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, an abnormal thickening of the heart’s walls.

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Play with Heart Campaign Provides Free Screenings

darren — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:13:40 +0000

FARMINGTON — Heart problems often can blind side individuals who never thought they had a heart illness, and often times those problems can come to light during athletic activity, according to Dr. Charles Wilkins, a cardiologist at San Juan Regional Medical Center.

On Saturday, more than 50 adolescent athletes underwent free cardiac screenings at SJRMC as part of the hospital’s “Play with Heart,” campaign.

The 50 athletes had to claim a spot for the event prior to Saturday and Roberta Rogers, the marketing manager of SJRMC, said there was even time to squeeze in a few walk-ins.

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Congrats on the SCA Contest!

darren — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:18:16 +0000

PITTSBURGH, July 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation today announced the grand prize winner of its You Can Save a Life Video Awareness Contest. The student competition invited teams to submit videos about the impact of sudden cardiac arrest and the importance of CPR and automated external defibrillators (AEDs), empowering students and communities to make a difference in helping to save lives.

The grand prize winner is 911 Emergency ROCKsponse, a college team from Ontario, Canada, whose creative paramedic rap has already received more than 42,000 views and 240 comments on YouTube. The Foundation will award Ryan Chomiszak, the group’s creator, with a new AED, three CPR Anytime™ kits, and a Nintendo Wii™ gaming system. Chomiszak will donate the AED and CPR Anytime kits to his college.

“We wanted to create a fun video that would motivate our class and help everyone get through paramedic training successfully,” said Chomiszak, or ‘DCMedicRyan’ on YouTube. “We used comedy to engage the viewers’ interest, but we take sudden cardiac arrest very seriously. While the medics in our video certainly aren’t demonstrating proper technique, the steps they sing about are grounded in SCA protocol. As new paramedic graduates, we look forward to using this video, and our skills in the field, to help make a difference in improving SCA survival.”

Parent Heart Watch – News Story

darren — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:01:39 +0000

This is a great news piece on Parent Heart Watch and the efforts of one mother to prevent other children from dropping dead.

Story

Group Takes Aim at Sudden Cardiac Arrest

darren — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:57:04 +0000

Jackie Renfrow - SADS

New chapter stresses need for youth heart exams

By William J. Booher
william.booher@indystar.com

Jackie Renfrow and Norma Johnson take to heart the risks of sudden cardiac arrest.

They know the pain first-hand of suddenly losing young loved ones to undiscovered heart defects.

To reduce the risks for others, Renfrow, 49, Franklin, and Johnson, 63, Fishers, want to raise awareness through the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association’s new Indy Chapter headed by Renfrow. Johnson is among the first dozen chapter members.

The chapter is stressing the need for detailed heart exams for young people, particularly if they have fainting spells or seizures or a family history of heart ailments. Renfrow said the cardiac arrest deaths earlier this month of University of Southern Indiana basketball senior center Jeron Lewis, 21, and Chicago Bears defensive end Gaines Adams, 26, both from enlarged hearts, are just a couple of the latest tragic losses.

The chapter is emphasizing preparedness to try to prevent deaths when sudden cardiac arrest occurs. The chapter wants more people trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and more widespread availability of automated external defibrillators.

The portable defibrillators are designed to enable even the untrained to use them properly. The chapter hopes schools, businesses and sporting events are among gathering sites where they will be readily available.

The Indy Chapter covers the Indianapolis metro area and Southern Indiana.

“If I had read this story 10 years ago, I could have saved both of my kids’ lives,” said Renfrow, manager of food service for Perry Township Schools in Marion County.

Her son, Jimmy Brackett, died at age 22 in 2000, and her daughter Crissy Brackett, died at age 21 in 2002, both from sudden cardiac arrest due to an undiagnosed rare heart condition called long QT syndrome.

Both had a history of occasional seizures, Renfrow said, but in medical exams the cause was not identified.

The heart condition is treatable if diagnosed, she said.

Renfrow and her two grandchildren learned they have the same rare hereditary heart condition after Renfrow’s mother was diagnosed with the condition after a heart episode. Renfrow now has an implanted defibrillator to restart her heart if it stops.

The Brackett siblings had exams of their hearts during physicals for sports, Renfrow said, but not with an electrocardiogram to check the heart’s electrical impulses and an echocardiogram to obtain advanced imaging of the heart.

Also, she said, it is important for someone experienced, such as an electrophysiologist, to properly analyze what those tests show.

Renfrow said someone suffering sudden cardiac arrest will die after about three minutes without being treated with CPR and a defibrillator. This is different from a heart attack, a plumbing problem caused by blockage in the heart’s arteries.

Johnson said her grandson, Clinton Walker, 17, Stockbridge, Ga., died Feb. 7, 2008, of sudden cardiac arrest due to what a coroner’s report determined was sudden cardiac arrest due to congenital heart defects.

“Doctors misdiagnosed him altogether,” Johnson said. “It breaks my heart. We tried to find for so long what was wrong.”

She said doctors felt the seizures he had experienced were due to neurological or psychological problems and did not test his heart.

“You need to look for the signs in your children of having unexplained behavior and seizures. Just don’t accept it, check their heart,” she said.

She said Phillips Temple CME Church, 210 E. 34th St., Indianapolis, where Clinton’s uncle, the Rev. Oliver DeWayne Walker, is pastor, plans to raise awareness of sudden cardiac arrest on Feb. 7.

Additional Facts

More information To learn more about the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association’s new Indy Chapter, covering the Indianapolis metropolitan area and Southern Indiana, go online to www.suddencardiacarrest.org or www.jimmyandcrissy.embarqspace.com.