Sunday’s free heart screening event marks 40K youth screened for potentially fatal conditions
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — More than 750 youth and their parents registered for a free heart screening event Sunday in Spring Valley.
Lauren Ewing joined more than 125 volunteers to give free heart screenings to teens and young adults at Steele Canyon High School, performing EKG’s and screening teens for cardiac abnormalities.
The free event was organized the Eric Paredes Save A Life Foundation.
“My son Eric passed away almost 15 years ago from sudden cardiac arrest,” said Rhina Paredes-Greeson. “He was a healthy 15-year-old, a two-sport athlete, had no signs, no symptoms.” He was a student at Steele Canyon High School.
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Eric’s parents founded the foundation in 2010. It offers free heart screenings for young adults and helps families identify potentially fatal heart conditions in their children.
“Today (Sunday) we are having our 70th heart screening in the last 15 years and we are also screening our 40,000th teen,” said Paredes-Greeson.
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The screenings included a cardiac risk assessment, ECG, a physician consultation, as well as how to use CPR and an AED. The screenings are put on at different high schools across the county.
“Steele Canyon High School was the first high school where we screened almost 15 years ago,” explained Paredes-Greeson.
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That’s exactly where Ewing was in 2010.
“I actually was a student here at Steele Canyon and I received a heart screening in 2010,” volunteer Lauren Ewing said. “It was my first EKG that I had received, and it found that I had a cardiac condition requiring further treatment.”
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Ewing says the screening saved her life, and now she’s on a mission to spread awareness and help others. “I feel called to give back to this foundation, I feel called to give back to the teens in the community, if it means that we can potentially catch somebody else’s abnormality the same way that mine was caught.”
The foundation’s free screenings so far have helped nearly 600 people identify potentially fatal heart conditions.
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