 Parkview coach Cecil Flowe thought making heart scans available to his football players was a smart thing to do when he arranged for a portable heart-scan machine to come to the Panthers' photo day last Saturday.
He had no idea how smart it would be for his family.
Flowe's 12-year-old son Patrick, who was tested along with 39 Parkview football players, came up positive for a congenital heart defect. He was diagnosed in a follow-up visit Monday with a cardiologist.
Patrick, a seventh-grader at Trickum Middle School and a youth football player, has a bicuspid aortic valve, a common heart-valve defect. With minimal care and yearly checkups, he shouldn't have any problems, Flowe said. But that's because they know.
"The one kid screened [positively] was my own son, imagine that," Flowe said. "I'm just glad we had the scan done."
Patrick is at risk for bacterial endocarditis, which occurs when bacteria travel in the bloodstream through the faulty valve and into the lining of the heart. It can be lethal if undetected and untreated.
Now doctors can significantly reduce those risks by giving Patrick antibiotics before dental visits and monitoring the condition of the valve regularly.
A handful of high school athletes have died of sudden cardiac trauma in metro Atlanta in the past few years.
Smart Heart Scans for Athletes founder Tom Vardase, who was at Parkview last Saturday, will offer heart scans this Saturday at Northview, Aug. 20 at St. Pius and Sept. 10 at Chattahoochee. | |
