HeartSmart EKG Visited 11 Schools during Fall 2019

HeartSmart EKG, provided by The Max Schewitz Foundation is pleased to announce they visited 11 schools during the Fall 2019 semester. The program’s mission is to identify students who are at risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) before they are stricken so they can obtain treatment.

“We visited the most schools ever this fall,” said Kathy Aykroid, executive director of The Max Schewitz Foundation. “We couldn’t have done it without all the parent volunteers and school administrators. At every school we found at least one child who needed further evaluation. We know our HeartSmart EKG program is providing a valuable resource to our community.”

In 2005, Max died suddenly and unexpectedly at age 20 from an undiagnosed cardiac condition. Like so many other victims of SCD, Max had no previous medical conditions or warning signs. If he had been diagnosed, life-saving treatments could have been implemented.

Heart Smart EKG, the Foundation’s school-wide EKG screening program, is administered by trained parent volunteers and the EKGs are interpreted by cardiologist Eli Lavie, MD, Medical Director of the Max Schewitz Foundation.

“We still hope one day, EKG testing will become a part of all students’ routine physical exams,” said Aykroid. “We continue to get calls from parents who lost a child to SCD and want to start similar EKG screening programs in their community. We will be partnering with WCCF Kai Lermer Foundation to bring HeartSmart EKG’s to Southern Wisconsin this spring.”

To sign up for a testing date at your child’s school, please visit our newly designed web site at www.heartsmartekg.org.

Upcoming testing dates:

· Jan. 29, 2020 - St. Charles East High School

· Feb. 12, 2020 - Prospect High School

· Feb. 26, 2020 - Elk Grove High School

· March 4, 2020 - Lake Zurich High School

· March 18, 2020 - Buffalo Grove High School

· April 17, 2020 - Highland Park High School

· April 22, 2020 - Waukesha North High School

About the Max Schewitz Foundation

Based in Libertyville, Ill., The Max Schewitz Foundation’s dual missions reflect Max’s life and death. His parents and family friends started the Foundation in 2005 after 20-year-old Max died suddenly from a cardiac arrhythmia. The Foundation works to prevent sudden cardiac death (SCD) in young people and to promote conservation of fragile reptile species and their ecosystems. To date, 90,823 students in Illinois and Wisconsin have received EKG testing from the Foundation and 2,500 students were given limited echocardiograms. The Foundation has found more than 910 students who required further medical evaluation. To learn more, visit www.heartsmartekg.org or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.