Share & Connect Philadelphia, U.S.A. – Philadelphia’s recreation
centers offer city youth a place to gather and, for many, a
place to play and hone their skills. They also are places where
the greatest tragedies can occur – sudden cardiac arrest. In an
effort to reduce such devastating events as losing a child to
sudden cardiac arrest, Youth Heart Watch from the Cardiac Center
at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, an affiliate of
Project ADAM, hosted a heart screening last week, in cooperation
with two city recreation centers, to diagnose underlying heart
conditions in young athletes. Annually, nearly 300,000
individuals die of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in the U.S.,
which equates to about four every day in Philadelphia. In SCA,
the heart unexpectedly stops beating, usually from ventricular
fibrillation, an uncontrolled quivering of the pumping chambers.
It is estimated that SCA claims the lives of over 1,000 children
and adolescents each year in the U.S., accounting for 5 to 10
percent of childhood de