By Nancy Kriz
CENTRAL VALLEY — It was supposed to be a fun soccer game between good friends who were home from college in June 2012.
Chester resident Kurtis Sparovich, who was a physics major at SUNY Binghamton, had just completed his freshman year that previous month. He loved soccer and people said his skills were amazing. The 2011 Monroe-Woodbury High School graduate always looked forward to going to soccer field for a match-up.
No one thought the game the young men were playing that day would be anything different than a normal one.
This time, though, it was sorrowfully different.
During that game with his brother and friends, the always healthy Kurtis suddenly collapsed on the field, never to get up again.
"He went into sudden cardiac arrest," his mother Shari Sparovich said. "He was in the hospital for a week. But he was brain dead. It was too late."
Quickly thereafter, the family found out the 19-year-old had a previously undiagnosed congenital heart anomaly which caused his untimely death.
"We didn't know he had a heart problem," said his mother. "He had not one symptom. Nothing was ever picked up. He was born with this. He had a defect that wasn't picked up and it just happened to be at that time. His heart could no longer take the physical activity he was doing."
Screening SaturdayThree years later, it's still painful for Sparovich to talk about what happened to her son, saying during a conversation that she might cry.
"He was my healthiest child," the mother of four boys said somberly. "He never complained of heart problems. He was never out of breath. He played soccer since he was three. He played on the travel team. He played on the school team. Never once did we have any signs that was something wrong with his heart."
So when Sparovich learned about a free community screening to be given by Heart Screen New York at Monroe-Woodbury High school tomorrow, April 18 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., she was quick to contact organizers to see if she and her husband could help out as volunteers.
"We don't want any other parent to lose their child like we did," she said. "Children need to be screened, especially kids who play sports. If they had this screening when he was alive, this program could have saved his life. They could have picked up this defect."
The free program is provided to students age 12 to 25 in all area school districts by the Louis J. Acompora Memorial Foundation and the Dominic A. Murray Memorial 21 Foundation. The goal is to increase awareness about sudden cardiac arrest in youth and the importance of cardiac screenings and early detection in youths.
Begins with one student's ideaThe idea for a screening in this area began when Monroe-Woodbury High School student and Highland Mills resident Christopher Fethke approached Lisa Burnett, the high school's nurse who is also the district's health services coordinator and a nurse practitioner. His father, Dr. Eric Fethke, a pediatric cardiologist with Pediatric Cardiology Associates of the Greater Hudson Valley in Middletown, regularly donates his time to similar screenings on Long Island and other parts of the state.
"We have been doing this other parts of New York State with this heart screen group, but this is our community," the older Fethke said. "Christopher and I thought it would make sense and it was his idea. What are we always going somewhere else? Why don't we do it in our own community? I think it's important because it's an important issue but it's also where we live and we wanted to make sure the same resources were available in our community as elsewhere."
'Heart-breaking stories'Christopher Fethke also felt a connection.
"Going to these screenings with my dad, I saw a lot of kids my age, and that really resonated with me," he said. "This can really affect anyone. I'm a track athlete, but this is for all students. I hear heart-breaking stories about families who have gone through this. Even teachers here talk about it."
Burnett traveled to Long Island to see exactly how the screenings were handled and said she knew this needed to be done locally.
"We have leading pediatric cardiologists coming," she said. "So many other medical professionals are donating their time too."
Every child will receive an EKG as part of the screening process.
"EKGs are sometimes the first things to pick up something," said Burnett. "The things that get picked up from EKGs are not always the same that's picked up by a stethoscope. I never want this to happen to any of our students so I've trying really hard to get them to all come out, athletes and non-athletes."
35 minutesBecause appointments are preferred, the total time spent in the process is about 35 minutes.
"It's a small investment of time," Burnett said. "Kids spend 35 minutes or more playing a video game, doing their hair, texting their friends, going on Facebook or Snapchat. This is 35 minutes out of a day, out of a life. Sudden cardiac can strike anyone of any age, in good health , peak physical fitness."
The screening will also show students the basics of AEDs and CPR.
"The early use of defibrillation has been shown to save lives of these children and often it's other kids who run for that when they're with their friends," she added.
For Sparovich, knowing there's a community program in place to help others is a comfort.
"Kurtis, he was such a kind-hearted boy," she said. "We donated his organs. We already saved three lives. I hope our tragedy will help somebody else and that it will become a happy story for someone else. He would be really happy knowing this was happening. Go do it, don't be us. It's a silent killer."