Support the 2nd FREE Cardiac Screening for EVERY student at OPRFHS on May 9!
Register your student and Volunteer here: https://huskiesheart.wixsite.com/huskieshaveaheart
We are thrilled that Edward - Elmhurst Healthcare has offered to sponsor the largest portion of the May 9th screening. However, there is still about $5,000 that Huskies Have a Heart needs to raise to cover the ancillary costs involved, such as privacy screens for students. With your help we can cover these other costs and save a life, or two. Any funds raised beyond what we need this year will be sent directly to Young Hearts for Life (www.yh4l.org) to assist other groups like ours provide similar screenings for other students.
The 1st such screening took place in October 2016 and identified 5 students for further screening. That's 5 teens and their families who didn't know they had a potentially life-threatening cardiac condition! Every week the story doesn't end happily for nearly 60 students in the same age range. In fact, we've all heard of such endings in the greater Chicago area as well as the rest of the nation. Young lives lost with no hint that anything could go wrong.
How did this all start? On October 5, 2014, a then Oak Park River Forest High School junior collapsed on the sidelines while at a hockey game from a sudden cardiac event. Seemingly in perfect health, there were no prior indications that something like this would occur. Thankfully, and only coincidentally, a trained medical practitioner was a spectator at the game and revived the student. Fortunately, a concerned group of OPRFHS parents was able to connect members of the medical board and administrative staff of Young Hearts for Life, the largest youth heart screening program in the United States, with the OPRFHS Administration. They presented how the screening process itself is not invasive and completely painless. Because YH4L commits to educating and training volunteers for this (1) day screening, and through the generous support of donors like you, it is offered free of charge to ALL students at a high school, NOT just athletes.
