Heart attacks on the rise among adolescents

ANT KATZ

The disease affects people from their teens up to the age of 25 and, although no statistics exist for South Africa,  just last Friday an 18-year-old South African girl survived a heart attack in Israel. While this is not known to be linked to SCDA, it does underscore the importance of preventive health.

“We have no expectations,” says Hatzolah’s executive general manager, Darren Sevitz. “This is simply screening.” If they find and save the life of one person, he says, it would have been worth it. “If we find none, even better.”

The condition is rare but cannot be diagnosed unless one specifically looks for it. There is “no need to panic” says Sevitz, explaining that there have been no known cases in South Africa.

Hatzolah raised sponsorship for what they call “The ECG Project” whereby they apply a proven technique using a 12-lead electrocardiogram to establish if the schoolkids have a predisposition to the disease.

By so doing, anyone who is identified, can be treated medically and counselled on lifestyle choices (like avoiding heavy-duty sporting activity). The potentially deadly disease is akin to the better-known SIDS, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

“SCDA is not a germ; one is either born with it, or not.”

The service is provided at no charge to the school, learner or their medical aid.  The idea for the ECG Project was first mooted by Hatzolah’s medical director, trauma surgeon Reuven Jacks, at a Hatzolah board meeting.

“We want to perform this test at all Johannesburg Jewish day schools,” explains Sevitz. Hatzolah started with the smaller schools before the holidays, and will move on to the larger ones when they open.

“We have the equipment and the skills,” says Sevitz. When Hatzolah “put out the call to our volunteer-base, we received many more respondents than we needed,” he says.

Participating schools send pupils home with an authorisation form for their parents to sign. The project is being medically overseen by a leading cardiologist. Testing complies with ethical, religious, confidentiality, and modesty requirements and all tests are done in private. Boys are screened by male practitioners, and girls by female practitioners.

Still, some schools have chosen not to participate.

Hatzolah has no statistics of the incidences of heart attacks in the community as a whole, as they only keep records of what the initial callout was for, not the diagnosis. The number of heart attacks are thus hidden among calls that came in for, say, chest pain, respiratory distress, abdominal pain, even nausea, says Sevitz.

A well-published author on the subject of SCDA is Dr Stefanie Ellison, who writes that the term “sudden” is “generally defined as death that occurs within one hour of the onset of symptoms, but can also occur within minutes for adolescents and children”.

The true incidence of SCDA is unknown, says Ellison. However, it “is definitely on the rise”. Research shows that as many to 25 per cent of these deaths occur during the playing of sport, she says.