A program designed to help Manitowoc students learn about any heart abnormalities begins today.
As we previously reported, the Manitowoc Public School District’s Nursing Department has teamed up with Who We Play For to offer electrocardiogram (ECG) tests for students in grades 6 through 12.
MPSD Nurse Jenny Hinz tells SeehaferNews.com that they discovered the Who We Play For program during a webinar.
“The nonprofit was founded by a group of student athletes,” Hinz explained. “When they were in high school, they had an experience with a very dear friend playing a soccer game where this particular student was healthy, and he experienced sudden cardiac arrest.”
This individual, who died in the incident, was a seemingly healthy student who was active in athletics and passed his school physical.
While school physicals do a good job of looking for heart-related issues, sometimes they can miss some signs that can be detected by additional tests.
The issue is, ECG tests can run between $200 and $300.
“So that’s why we wanted to partner with this group, because they’re able to, with their nonprofit, offer kids an EKG test that will go ahead and screen for any kind of cardiac abnormalities…It’s only a $20 cost,” Hinz said.
While most may connect heart disease with the older generation, Hinz noted that it is much more common in young people than you may think.
“One in 300 youth actually have a detectable heart condition that they don’t know about,” Hinz revealed.
Students, with parental consent, can sign up for a time slot to be tested between 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. today and Wednesday, or between 10:00 and 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Anyone with additional questions can contact Hinz at hinzj@mpsd.school or Jennifer Monte-Last at monte-lastj@mpsd.school.
For more details on the program, visit the Who We Play For YouTube Channel.
