Blog

A Picture is Worth . . .

Last night was Bubby’s 65th birthday party.  I flew down to Tampa to surprise her.  You wouldn’t have made the trip.  Mom, Sally and Jaden stayed home.  Aunt Meredith put together a great video.  Of course, you were in it. As we strolled down memory lane, looking at pictures from...

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Bills to Protect Athletes Head to State Senate

After she was treated for a concussion at a local hospital, an emergency room doctor gave the high school athlete a note saying she could return to her sport after one week. A week later, though, when the school district’s athletic trainer retested her brain to see if it was...

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Twenty-Something Teacher Collapses and Dies

It is not only about protecting the hearts of students.  We also need to protect the hearts of young teachers.  Sudden cardiac arrest isn’t just a grown-up thing. A math teacher at East Central High School died Monday morning after collapsing before classes started, officials said. Melinda Villegas, 23, a...

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HS Soccer Player, Collapses, Dies

Students and staff of a Winnipeg private school are mourning a Grade 11 student athlete who collapsed during a soccer practice Wednesday night.  Grief counsellors met students at St. John’s-Ravenscourt when they arrived on Thursday morning, hours after learning of the death of Evan Dupuis.  “We made sure they were...

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Student Complains of Chest Pains, Dies

I just got finished posting an article about a study suggesting that children complaining of chest pains is not a cause for alarm.   ALLENDALE — A 21-year-old Grand Valley State University student died Tuesday after complaining of chest pains while playing basketball with friends, according to the university.  The...

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Radnor – The Power of Two (Simons)

For the past five years, Simon Sudman has been been the motivation behind every heart screening.  That changed today.  Simon Prushan, a student at Radnor Middle School, brought a screening to his school as part of his bar mitzvah project.  We were blown away by his leadership, maturity and commitment....

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Study Confirms Students Should Get Hearts Screened

Congrats to our friend, Dr. Joe Marek, for getting this study published.  He is proving that hearts screening for our kids are effective, affordable, managable and save lives.  This issue is debated, but there are no U.S. studies that show hearts screenings are ineffective, unaffordable, unmanagable and don’t save lives.  ...

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Lady Gaga Concert-Goer Collapses, Revived

When Crystal Thorton was singing “I want your ugly; I want your disease.” at the Lady Gaga concert this past week,  I’m pretty sure she wasn’t wishing for a condition that leads to sudden cardiac arrest.  Unfortunately, the condition runs in her family and until know, was undiagnosed. NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A...

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Our Yellow Brick Road

When Dorothy’s house came crashing down, she had no idea where she’d landed.  Nothing was normal – everything was strange.  She began her journey back to normalcy.  Along the way, she met some characters that had a profound impact on her life.  They opened her eyes and broadened her perspective. ...

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Sudden Death Should Trigger Family Check Ups

When Simon died, we got some very important advice – “get your hearts checked because kids aren’t supposed to die.” Over the past six years, we’ve discovered that this advice was unique, which is unfortunate. Most of the families that we talk to that have been striken with sudden cardiac...

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