Title: Athletes and Heart Risk
Producer: Emily Halevy
Feed: CWKN #381, April 16, 2008
Time: 1:21
SUGGESTED LEAD: ONCE EVERY THREE DAYS, SOMEWHERE IN THIS NATION, A TEENAGE ATHLETE DIES OF CARDIAC ARREST: ONE HUNDRED AND TEN ATHLETES A YEAR. THEIR DEATHS ARE SUDDEN AND ALWAYS TRAGIC.  BUT ARE THERE ANY SIGNS OR SYMPTOMS THAT INDICATE YOUR TEEN MAY BE AT RISK?  CONNECT WITH KIDS HAS THE STORY.
<<PKG>>

Nats:  yelling… (:00)

NARR: SHAI (SHAY) OWENS HAD JUST FINISHED A 3-MILE CROSS COUNTRY RACE.

SHE CHECKED HER TIME…

GOT SOME WATER… (:06)

SUPER: Nicolette Owens, Shai’s Mother (:08)
“And then as she sat down, she just sort of sat down and they said the next thing they knew she just kind of slumped over.”
 
SUPER: Alfred Lopez, Friend (:14)
“Her eyes just … was just gone. I couldn’t see her in her eyes anymore and that’s when it just sort of hit us.”

SOT: Nicolette Owens, Shai’s Mother (:21)
“And that was it, it was quick and quiet.”

NARR: SHE WAS ONLY 16-YEARS-OLD.  (:02)

SOT: Nicolette Owens, Shai’s Mother (:26)
“That was my heart, that was my child, my first child, and it devastates you.”

NARR: A FAULTY HEART VALVE WAS TO BLAME- ONE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN DETECTED WITH AN ELECTROCARDIOGRAM- AN E-K-G.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOUR ATHLETE NEEDS AN E-K-G?

EXPERTS SAY THESE ARE THE WARNING SIGNS: A HEART MURMUR … HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE … UNEXPLAINED FAINTING, LIGHTHEADEDNESS OR FATIGUE … AND MOST IMPORTANTLY … (:20)

SUPER: Angel Leon, M.D., Cardiologist (:53)
“If there’s been a history in your family of people dying prematurely or at an early age then I think it is a great idea for peace of mind.”

NARR: SHAI’S HEART COULD HAVE BEEN SURGICALLY REPAIRED … IF THEY HAD KNOWN … (:04)

SOT: Nicolette Owens, Shai’s Mother (1:05)
“If I had been able to see that with Shai we would’ve been able to pick up that she had a problem. I would have pulled her and then I would have had her checked out thoroughly by the cardiologist, by the doctors, until they told me everything was fine.”

SUGGESTED TAG:   WHILE HEALTH INSURANCE RARELY COVERS EKG’S FOR TEENAGERS, FOR A PARENT WHO WANTS TO HAVE ONE DONE ON THEIR CHILD… THE OUT OF POCKET COST IS AROUND 75-DOLLARS.