Grosse Pointe Hospital Offers Free Student Heart Checks

Beaumont Hospital, Grosse Pointe and the Grosse Pointe Park Internal Medicine Center are offering free heart screenings for high school students. The in-depth heart screening includes a medical history, blood pressure assessment and an ECG. Echocardiograms will also be provided, if needed. The screening looks for evidence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a serious condition that can cause sudden cardiac death in young athletes, and other heart abnormalities.

"The screening takes about 30 minutes," says Georges Ghafari, M.D., chief of Cardiovascular Disease at Beaumont, Grosse Pointe."Those 30 minutes may save a student's life or provide peace of mind for parents concerned about a young athlete's risk of sudden cardiac death."

The free Student Heart Screening will be held on Saturday, Oct. 10, from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., at the Grosse Pointe Park Internal Medicine Center, 15200 Kercheval Avenue (at Lakepointe Street), Grosse Pointe Park. Registration is required. Call Beaumont Physician Referral toll-free at 1-800-633-7377to register.

Beaumont Hospital, Grosse Pointe is a 289-bed hospital in the heart of Grosse Pointe. Opened in 1945 by the Sisters of Bon Secours, it was purchased by Beaumont Hospitals in October 2007, making Beaumont a three-hospital regional health care provider. Beaumont, Grosse Pointe provides medical, surgical, emergency, pediatric and critical care services.

Sudden cardiac death is the leading cause of death in young athletes. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the single most common cause of death among U.S. athletes. Nearly 4,000 of these deaths are among young people. And, 1 in 200,000 high school athletes will die suddenly, most without any prior symptoms. In addition, male athletes are 10 to 1 more likely to die suddenly as a result of HCM. 

Through its Healthy Heart Check student athlete heart screening program, Beaumont has screened more than 3,500 student athletes for HCM since May, 2007. In that time 14 students have been advised to stop participating in sports after doctors detected various heart conditions and one student was found to have HCM.

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