“What we are doing today is a Young Hearts For Life program and it’s sponsored by IPEF, the Indian Prairie Educational Foundation. And what they do is they are performing heart screening on students at Waubonsie Valley High School,” said Chrissy Censullo, a volunteer.
A good turn out this year
Waubonsie Valley had over 1,500 students sign up to be screened this year.
“The day of the screening, we have the parent volunteers here and then our staff and we screen the kids with EKGs. Those EKGs that are done that day are read by me while we’re doing them so we can identify any abnormalities that day,” said Dr. Frank Zimmerman, the medical director for Young Hearts For Life.
Sixth time at Waubonsie with improved results
This is the sixth time that Young Hearts For Life has come to Waubonsie Valley, with the results improving each year.
“When the screenings were started several years ago, we were getting about 10 to 15% of the EKGs being flagged as possibly abnormal and needing further evaluation. But now that we’ve learned more about the screening process, we are down to about 1% or a little bit less than 1% of the EKGs are being flagged as showing an abnormality that needs further evaluation,” said Zimmerman.
Young Hearts For Life
Young Hearts For Life has screened over 285,000 students at Chicagoland High Schools since 2006, identifying more than 3,100 students with cardiac conditions.
“So every week in the U.S., there are approximately six students that die from cardiac sudden death. So we’re very appreciative that Young Hearts For Life comes into each of our high schools every other year. We’re really grateful to the IPEF for sponsoring this and to all the volunteers that make this happen,” said Shelby Schultz, a volunteer.
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