Free heart screenings to be provided to Houston-area high school student-athletes

HOUSTON – More than 500 student-athletes, in the prime of their lives, came together at the Memorial Athletic Club heart screen last weekend.

The athletes had their hearts tested for hidden defects that a standard high school sports exam can’t find.

At the screening, each athlete is hooked up to an electrocardiogram machine for a painless, five-minute test that gives doctors a look at the electrical activity going on inside the athlete's heart.

It’s a test that goes light-years beyond the stethoscope, in terms of finding heart trouble.

“The stethoscope is a great tool, but it’s 200-year-old technology. The stethoscope catches about 3% of all heart abnormalities that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest. By adding this electrocardiogram test, we can take that to 86%," Scott Stephens, one of our partners and the president of the Cody Stephens Go Big or Go Home Foundation, which helped fund the event, said.

The next free heart screening will happen Saturday at the Pearland Recreation Center.

It's the Cameron Juniel Heart Screen and it will go from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The screening is in honor of 20-year-old Cameron Juniel, who died from a hidden heart defect while playing basketball.

His mother Sherry Juniel organized the event.

“If we can save just one life, it is all worth it. We have to test everyone,” Juniel said.

 

What can you do to protect your kids?

To protect your children from ever having to go through what Storey went through that day, KPRC 2 is teaming up with the Cody Stephens Foundation, the Memorial Athletic Club, Rock Sports and Spine, the Parisi Speed School, the Berkeley Eye Center, and River Oaks Paint and Body to offer all student-athletes, ages 11 to 25 years old, a free, in-depth, heart screening that can detect hidden heart defects a normal sports exam can’t find.

Free screenings

The heart screenings are being provided this weekend. The screenings are free.

When are they?

The Cameron Juniel Heart Screen will be held Aug. 3 at the Pearland Recreation Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

To attend the event, you must register your child in advance.


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Emmy-winning investigative reporter, insanely competitive tennis player, skier, weightlifter, crazy rock & roll drummer (John Bonham is my hero). Husband to Veronica and loving cat father to Bella and Meemo.