Living for Zachary Announces FREE Heart Screenings to Prevent Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Youth

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Jul 22, 2015, 03:37 ET

DALLAS, July 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) claims one life every 2 minutes, taking more lives each year than breast cancer, lung cancer, or AIDS. Many appear healthy and have no known family history of heart-related illness. Typically, SCA symptoms are silent until it is too late. On April 2, 2009, Zac Schrah collapsed during high school football practice in Plano due to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a common cause of SCA in young people. Living for Zachary was founded in his honor and established to raise awareness of undiagnosed heart issues in teens.

Living for Zachary is partnering with Frontera and Walgreens to offer potentially life-saving screenings that include an echocardiogram, ECG and blood pressure check. These screenings, performed by Frontera, are non-invasive and take approximately 20 minutes to perform. The screening results are reviewed by a board-certified cardiologist and are ready in approximately 3 business days.

A substantial number of these screenings are available for FREE, due to fundraising efforts, and are available on a first come first serve basis. The remainder of these screenings are available at the greatly reduced price of $75. Participants must be between 12-22 years old.

Last year, Living for Zachary raised $10,000 and was able to screen over 400 youth for heart conditions that could lead to SCA. This year Living for Zachary intends to raise $50,000 so that FREE heart screenings can be provided for over 1,000 youth.

Screenings will be held July 20 through August 21 at six Walgreens locations in North Texas.

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For more information, please visit: http://www.studentheartscreenings.com

ABOUT LIVING FOR ZACHARY

Living for Zachary, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is dedicated to raising awareness of SCA in youth and saving lives through community education and awareness events, promoting youth heart screenings, awarding student scholarships and donating automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to youth-based organizations.

Website: http://www.living4zachary.org/