Local Teen Raises Awareness About Deadly Heart Condition

Apr. 9 - KGO (KGO) -- A Bay Area teenager is hoping to raise awareness about a potentially deadly congenital heart condition. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy often has no symptoms but it's the leading cause of sudden cardiac death and it's often detected in competitive athletes.

Nineteen-year-old James Cooper was a standout high school basketball star until last year when at his pre-participation physical, a red flag went up. James wingspan is 6'5  four inches greater than his height. His doctor wanted him to see a specialist to rule out Marfan's syndrome, but instead that specialist suspected hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and referred James to Stanford.

Dr. Euan Ashely: "This is the main left ventricle chamber that pumps the blood out for the body and the wall thickness around here you can see is about one and half times what it should be."

Dr. Euan Ashely is guiding Stanford's efforts to become a center of excellence for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Dr. Euan Ashely: "It can often be silent. One of the things is that it is an enlargement of the heart and that can often cause no symptoms at all, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a risk of sudden cardiac death and dangerous rhythms."

In fact, it's the most common cause of cardiac death in young people and for James the diagnosis ended his basketball career and his dreams of becoming a firefighter.

James Cooper: "I was crushed, like I don't know how to explain it, my whole basketball team, my coach, everyone was like, you don't have it for sure."

Dr. Euan Ashely: "Stopping him playing competitive basketball although a really different thing for him will actually reduce a very large proportion of his risk for sudden cardiac death."

And since James lost two great uncles to unexpected heart attacks, he decided to follow Dr. Ashely's advice and have a a defibrillator implanted in his chest to monitor every heart beat and if needed it can shock his heart back into rhythm.

Dr. Euan Ashely: "Every single athlete, for football, volleyball, golf, everyone should be checked out."

That's the way it's done in Italy. All young people who take part in competitive sports get an electrocardiogram, and the policy has led to a dramatic decrease in sudden cardiac death.

Dr. Euan Ashely: "In America it's been decided that actually that's too big an undertaking and it would be to expensive and impractical to do that across the whole population or at least to mandate it across the whole population."

And even so, James Cooper is still pushing his friends to get tested.

Related Link: Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center

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