Edison schools to offer athletes heart testing

The roughly 1,800 student-athletes in the Edison’s school district may be able to receive heart examinations starting in October.

Since May, Edison High School Athletic Director Jeff DiCocco has been working with Pam Gizzi, school nurse at Montgomery High School, on how to offer EKGs and echocardiograms for the students.

“This will [be offered] to students at Edison High School and J.P. Stevens, and will be at no cost to the district,” DiCocco said at the Aug. 23 Board of Education meeting. “We will send a letter to all the athletes’ parents and a permission form to get the testing.”

DiCocco said the testing will cost $70 per athlete, though students who are on the free or reduced lunch programs will receive the testing for free.

The normal physicals given at the school may pick up on conditions such as sclerosis or skin lesions, Gizzi said, but those do not result in the sudden death of an athlete on the field.

The idea to look into heart testing at the Edison schools was spawned by the sudden death of 17-year-old Kittim N. Sherrod. A standout athlete at Edison High School, Sherrod collapsed and died during a track practice in April 2009. The cause of death was cardiac arrest caused by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a condition that the young athlete and his family had not known about previously. HCM is a hereditary heart condition and is the leading cause of sudden cardiac arrest in young people and the No. 1 cause of cardiac death among athletes.

Gizzi explained that 225 student-athletes out of 500 in her school district in Montgomery were tested recently. She said she had sent out 50 request letters to cardiologists, and one came back with the $70 offer.

“The results showed that no one had this HCM; however, it found that one of our football players did have an enlarged right ventricle and a hole in his heart between the septum,” she said. “He went to a pediatric cardiologist and had surgery two weeks ago … whatever we did, we saved this parent from losing their child.”

After seeing the results, Gizzi said she decided to take the “show on the road” and work with other school districts to push for the testing. She has also talked to school officials in East Brunswick and South Brunswick.

“The student has to be at least 14 years old to have the testing,” she said. “This testing is [essentially] a one-time deal. It can’t predict [the student’s] health in 10 to 15 years; however, if the tests show that the student doesn’t have an enlarged heart, the student doesn’t have an enlarged heart.”

Gizzi said it is up to the parent to decide if they would like to have the test done.

“This was something we were doing for the first time,” she said. “Some parents didn’t want it, but we received 50 calls afterward telling us that they didn’t sign their kids up and wanted it. In January, we are doing it again.”

DiCocco said he is looking to provide the tests from 9 to 5 p.m. on Oct. 23 and to hold another round of tests the second week of November.

“The testing takes six minutes; that is 10 kids an hour,” he said.

Board member Joseph Romano said he would like to see if the board could subsidize the cost of the testing to ensure that every student is able to get the testing. Officials said it could cost the district roughly $140,000.

“I want it offered to everybody,” Romano said. “Whatever the problem is, want all the kids protected. If it saves one life, I don’t care about the cost.”

Board member William H. Van Pelt also said he was concerned about kids who are right above the level of free and reduced lunch not getting the test due to the cost.

“I’m worried they can’t afford it,” he said.

Board member Deborah Anes asked if the district could expand the testing to all the students, not just those participating in sports programs.

“I think this is a terrific thing,” she said. “You can’t get that for $70 anywhere … why limit it to athletes?”

Gizzi said that in January the Montgomery school district is expanding the testing to all students.

“We thought at first we were only going to get 20 kids,” she said. “We had also offered it to marching band parents.”

Edison Interim Superintendent of Schools Ronald Bolandi noted that a parent had set the process in motion for the testing at the schools. He said officials have to be cautious because a problem could arise if they decide to fund testing for the athletes and marching band members, but not the other students.

DiCocco said he has planned to go forward with testing of all fall athletes who are interested in the testing and said the district can move forward from there.

Raising awareness of HCM

On May 2, the Sherrod family held the inaugural Kittim N. Sherrod Heart to Heart Walk to not only celebrate his life, but to raise awareness of HCM, the most common of all genetic heart conditions.

Lisa Salberg, who founded the nonprofit Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association (HCMA), came to the event and explained that one in every 500 people is diagnosed with HCM; 600,000 have it in the U.S., and most of them do not know it. There is no particular symptom that is unique to HCM, but they may include shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitation and light-headedness.

She travels across the country to promote the foundation’s mission of providing support, advocacy and education to patients and their families, the medical community and the public. Salberg, who was diagnosed with HCM when she was 12, said she and her daughter are living proof that one can live a normal, active life with the disease.

HCM has claimed many lives, including Brandon James, a South Brunswick High School student who died during a recreation basketball game last December, and dozens of college and professional athletes, including Chicago Bears defensive end Gaines Adams, who died in January at age 26.

Ryan Miller, a star soccer player at Monroe Township High School, has survived with HCM and, following a 2008 heart transplant, returned to play on his varsity soccer team.

Salberg is working with state Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-18th District) on legislation that would heighten HCM awareness in the public schools and implement measures to prevent student-athletes from dying as a result of the condition.

For more information about HCMA, visit www.4hcm.org.