Students get tested for QT syndrome

On a campus recently jarred by sudden death, students flocked to a free test that offered hope of preventing similar tragedies.

More than 175 consenting students at Marina High School underwent electrocardiogram tests Friday to check for long QT syndrome, a heart condition that often strikes down teens out of nowhere. While no one can say whether 14-year-old John Rambo — who died in a special-needs physical education class in late February — had that particular disorder, school officials said it wasn’t worth taking any chances.

“With heart maladies in children, people picture the kids sick,� said Monica Weaver, founder of Sparkling Angel Charities, which screens kids in interested high schools throughout the county. “With this, somebody can be out running on the soccer field, looking like they’re in perfect health, and they can just drop.�

Teens covered in sensor patches lay down on examination tables, trying to control their breaths so that volunteer doctors, local fire medics and emergency medical technicians staffing the machinery would get clean readings.

As he waited in line with friends, Marina High senior Jonathan Gibo said it was his parents who insisted he and his brother take the EKG. Still, he sees their reasoning in the wake of Rambo’s sudden death.

“After John Rambo, it really brings to life that anybody can be vulnerable,� he said. “I’m not nervous, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry.�

The condition is a simple irregularity in the heart’s rhythm, a sign of trouble in the electrical system that makes the heart beat, said Sparkling Angel board member Debbie Cope. At some point, the bottom half of the heart will short-circuit, causing it to quiver and fill with blood instead of pumping it to the brain. To bystanders it may look like a seizure, she said.

An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 young people die each year of the disease, but the number could be far higher, Cope said. Up to 60,000 people may be undiagnosed.

“When it does happen, you often can’t tell what it was because you have to have a beating heart,� she said. Doctors can only be relatively sure if family members test positive.

Those who are diagnosed can live a normal life with treatment. Weaver’s daughter, Kelly Weaver, died at 21 of the illness, but her 24-year-old sister Katie said she is alive today because that tragic incident alerted doctors to her own long QT syndrome. Katie Weaver held up a hard copy of her own EKG from 2002, downloaded from an automatic defibrillator implanted in her body. The waves shrank and distorted before suddenly jolting back to normal, thanks to the implant.

“That’s been my only episode so far,� she said.

The charity uses donations to pick up all costs for the tests. The group is scheduled to screen students at Huntington Beach High School this September. For more information, visit its website at www.sparklingangel.org.