Heart health screening held for kids to raise awareness of sudden cardiac arrest
GERMANTOWN - During this American Heart Month, families in Philadelphia were invited to a heart health screening program at the Germantown Boys and Girls Club.
The Youth Heart Watch (YHW) at CHOP and The Daniel E. Rumph II Foundation teamed up to provide care to children and adolescents between five and 22-years-old to find out if they’re at risk of sudden cardiac arrest.
"We screen anywhere from 50 to 500 children in a day," said Dr. Victoria Vetter, Medical Director of YHW. "What we want to do is identify it ahead of time, and then they can receive the usual medical care for whatever abnormality they’re found to have. That might be medication. It might involve a defibrillator. Sometimes it involves surgery when we find a congenital heart defect."
The heart health screening study starts with a blood pressure check. Then it’s time for the electrocardiogram. Dr. Vetter said if an abnormality is detected, families move forward to receive further examination at the echocardiogram tent.
"We lost Danny not knowing that he had a heart ailment," said uncle Marcus Owens, President & Executive Director of The Daniel E. Rumph II Foundation. "He was 21-years-old visiting from college the year he died and he collapsed and died in the local rec center where he grew up in. We took that heartbreak and tragedy and we’re hoping to prevent it from happening to others."
Daniel Rumph’s family believes a heart screening could have saved the thriving 21-year-old at the height of his college basketball career. It turns out, Rumph suffered from a condition called cardiomyopathy, and had an enlarged heart.
As part of his legacy, the family also donates defibrillators to youth organizations and rec centers.
"He loved basketball. Started playing basketball at an early age. We had no idea it was a heart condition, so this is why I do what I do, because we want to save the next bright star," said mother Viola Owens, better known as Candy. "He passed in May, Mother’s Day 2005, and he had a physical a couple months before that."
In addition to heart screenings, families were invited to a health and career fair where they could learn how to do CPR and how to use a defibrillator.
"It’s a really powerful skill to even just get kids more familiar with, so that hopefully, if they ever get into a situation where they need to do CPR or help someone else do CPR, they at least know the steps and how to ask for help," said Steffi Cramer, CHOP Pediatric ICU Fellow.
Dr. Vetter said across the country each year more than 23,000 children have a sudden cardiac arrest. The healthcare providers and the Rumph Foundation hope these events keep raising awareness.