Clinic provides free teen heart screenings

Vancouver — PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center and the Quinn Driscoll Foundation will offer advanced heart screenings for Clark County student athletes this weekend.

The Young Champions event will occur Saturday at PeaceHealth Southwest’s Heart & Vascular Center. Registration is required. To schedule a screening, call 360-514-7755 or register online at Heart & Vascular Center.

Any Clark County middle or high school athlete, band member or cheerleader age 13 to 18 is eligible. Organizers suggest a donation of $25 to help pay for future screenings.

The Quinn Driscoll Foundation is named for 13-year-old Quinn Driscoll, a student athlete at Wy’east Middle School who died in 2009 after suffering cardiac arrest while running during gym class.

Driscoll had undiagnosed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death among young athletes. Young Champions heart screenings can detect HCM using an echocardiogram and comprehensive electrocardiogram.

The Young Champions clinic in February screened 300 teens and detected significant heart abnormalities in 15 kids — all previously undiagnosed, organizers said.