Student Heart Screenings - Sara Goodrich

There's a new state law taking effect July 1st requiring all high school athletes to receive a heart screening before their first tryout. Sudden Cardiac Arrest is the number one killer of student-athletes and the leading cause of death on school campuses. Most students don't know whether they have a heart condition. We speak with Sara Goodrich, who oversees screenings for whoweplayfor.org to talk about why screenings are needed and where to find them in June. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here with Beyond the News. There is a
new state law taking effect July first. It requires all
high school athletes in Florida to receive a heart screening
before their first tryout of the season. We're going to
talk about the new law, the reasons behind it, and
how parents can get their teenagers screened before that takes effect.

(00:21):
Sarah Goodrich is one of the screening site directors for
who We Play for dot Org. She's the director in
Polk County and she's going to talk with us about
this new law and about the screening and how everything works.
Sarah Goodrich, welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Now, this law starts. The genesis of the law starts
with a condition called sudden cardiac arrest Tell us why
that's a danger, particularly to young people and young athletes well.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Sudden cardiac arrests is a life threatening condition that causes
a person's heartbeat to stop abruptly and unexpectedly.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Is usually caused by an abnormality in the heart's electrical
system and when this happened, blood flow to the brain,
the heart and the rest of the body stops, and
if standing, the person usually collapses. Sea strikes people of
all ages, and the cardiac emergency event is usually the
first symptoms. Most youths don't realize that they have a

(01:22):
heart condition, and that's why our preventative heart screenings are
so important.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
And I'm thinking then that this is something that is
likely to show up in the course of strenuous athletic activity,
is where it might be unfortunately discovered Oftentimes.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yes, this sudden cardiac arrest does happen during strenuous activity. However,
SUTN cardiac arrest is not athletes specific, and so any youth,
regardless of level of physical activity, regardless of participation in sports,
is actually at risk for SCA. And although it is
the number one death a cause of death on school

(01:59):
care emphasis, it can happen at any time in or
out of school, at a sporting event, at home, or anywhere.
And so again that's why we encourage all hearts between
the ages of ten and twenty five ticket screened, regardless
if you are an athlete or physically active or not.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Now I'm going to ask you to walk us through
the screening process. An electric cardiogram is part of it.
It's something most adults have experienced, but for these teenagers
they may never have done that before, So how do
you get them ready for it? How do you tell
teens and parents what to expect.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
Sure, it's actually a very easy, simple process. It takes
less than five minutes to do, and the majority of
that five minutes is actually just intake questions or preparing
the use for it. The test itself is only about
twenty seconds, and all we are going to do is
placed little stickers across your ches, across their chest and

(02:57):
connect those to some chords that do not have electricity
in it.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
So it's very simple. And then the student, the.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Youth just lays there for twenty seconds while we collect
that test. And so it can be as simple as
a five minute meeting with us with this test that
could save your life.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Now, there are screening events that are going to be
going on through the month of June ahead of the
new law taking effect. Some of them have a fee
and some of them are free, and I understand you
can actually go through your website who we play for
dot org and set those up.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Absolutely, we have a website that has an interactive calendar,
so anyone across the state of Florida and even beyond
can go to this website and find the nearest heart
screening near you. And as you mentioned, there sometimes is
a fee asked of twenty dollars, but I would like
to let everybody.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Know that fee can be waived. On the registration form.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
You'll just select the button that you need some financial
assistance and we will provide that for you. We never
want inability to pay to be a barrier for someone
to have their heart screened, so regardless of ability to pay,
we want all hearts to come out to these screenings
across the state.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Now, looking at your list, I see that there are
at least three events scheduled in June in Polk County
and one in Hillsboro County and one in Panelas County
as well. So this is going to be an ongoing
opportunity for parents and students to go ahead and get
screened and make sure that they're ready for the new

(04:33):
law and the new school year.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
That's true, and actually every single day we are adding
new events across the state. So if you don't see
an event in your area, you can actually request one
or keep checking back and it's likely there'll be one
near you in the future. This has become very popular.
The demand is high and we really want to support families, schools,
coaches and everyone in the community by providing as many

(04:58):
screening opportunities.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
As possib and just to make sure that everybody hears
the website knows where to go. It's who we Play
for dot org.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Correct, That's correct?

Speaker 1 (05:09):
All right? Very good, good information for parents and students.
Sarah Goodrich one of the screening site directors for Who
we Play for dot org. Let me take that again
in three two one good information for parents and students.
Sarah Goodrich is one of the screening site directors for
who we Play for dot org. She's the site director

(05:30):
for Polk County. Thank you very much for joining us
on beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Thank you