Ferndale High School offers students free heart checks and CPR training

FERNDALE, MI. – On Saturday morning, the Ferndale High School gym is full of students, but it has nothing to do with a game.

Discussions about cardiac screenings are a topic reserved mainly for adults, but efforts are being made to ensure teenagers know their cardiac status following reports of students dying from sudden cardiac arrest.

Leo DiPilato, 13, is like most active eighth-graders.

“I play basketball, tennis, soccer – I do travel soccer,” he said.

So when his mother suggested he get his heart checked, he initially reacted negatively.

“I didn’t really want to do it,” DiPilato said.

It’s not exactly how most teens want to spend their weekend mornings.

Yet it is the very thing that can prevent sudden cardiac arrest due to abnormal heart structure or abnormal rhythms.

“If kids don’t have any symptoms related to their heart or anything that doesn’t feel right, they don’t have a way to get cardiology tests, like an EKG or a photofocused echocardiogram, because insurance won’t cover it,” says Jen Shea, manager of the Student Heart Check Program at Corewell Health.

Corewell Health offers help identifying young people at risk of sudden cardiac arrest. It also teaches teens how to perform CPR.

The student heart check is being held this year in memory of a former athlete.

“In 2013, we had a kid, Mario Campbell, who passed away – we named a hallway downstairs after him – and he passed away from heart disease,” said Juan Rickman, director of climate and culture and athletics director for Ferndale Public. Schools.

The program is aimed at ages 13 to 18 years. In DiPilato’s case, a cardiologist confirms that his health exams look good. Now he plans to have his heart screened every year.

The next heart check will be Feb. 1 at West Bloomfield High School, which will be part of a nationwide movement for children to get their hearts screened.

Corewell Health report specialists have performed more than 21,000 heart checks on students since the program’s inception in 2007.