Heart screenings for student athletes Saturday

Southwest Washington Medical Center and the Quinn Driscoll Foundation announce the launch of “Young Champions,” a program providing free advanced heart screenings for student athletes in Clark County.

The event is Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Kessid Center in Vancouver.

Southwest’s Heart and Vascular Center is providing the screenings. Any Clark County middle school or high school athlete, band member or cheerleader, ages 13 to 18, is eligible.

Registration is required by calling 514-1707, or going online to www.swheartcheck.org. Students must have a signed parental waiver and a completed health history questionnaire, which can be downloaded at www.swheartcheck.org. A $25 donation to the Quinn Driscoll Foundation is suggested to support future heart screening events.

The foundation is named after 13-year-old Quinn Driscoll, a student athlete at Wy’ East Middle School who died on June 10, 2009, after suffering a cardiac arrest while running on the track during gym class. Although he played football, basketball and baseball, Driscoll did not know he had an undiagnosed heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Heart diseases, such as HCM, often go undetected and many result in sudden cardiac arrest. In Driscoll’s case, there were no symptoms or indications that his heart was more than twice the size of a normal 13-year-old’s heart.

Through the Quinn Driscoll Foundation, family, friends and volunteers are dedicated to the awareness, education and testing to combat diseases of the heart in children. For more information, go to www.quinndriscollfoundation.org.