Nurse offers low-cost heart health tests
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Young athletes are routinely tested for things like asthma, scoliosis and skin lesions.
But rarely are they scrutinized for a heart condition that could take their lives in an instant.
Longtime Montgomery High School nurse Pam Gizzi, who lives in Hillsborough, has embarked on a personal crusade to change that. She and a self-effacing cardiologist have set up several low-cost screenings that aim to identify youngsters who may be prone to what she calls “a quiet killer” known as HCM, an abbreviation for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
She tells the story of two high school boys, both of whom were excellent athletes and popular high school seniors. Both had plans for college.
And both had no idea that inside their otherwise healthy bodies, their hearts were time bombs, she says.
Kittim Sherod lived in Edison and Brandon James lived in South Brunswick. They were 17 years old when they collapsed and died last year of HCM, she said. Neither had been sick. Neither had complained about being ill.
But they both had HCM, which causes the heart muscle to grow abnormally thick, increasing the chance of a violent interruption in its electrical activity. It is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young people, and there is usually no sign anything is wrong, she said.
”The first symptom is death,” she said.
Every day a high school student succumbs to sudden cardiac death, said Ms. Gizzi. Some of these deaths could be prevented through education, EKG and echocardiogram screenings and defibrillation, she maintains.
There are two tests the electrocardiogram (EKG) and echocardiogram (ECHO) available to screen for HCM. The EKG is the same as one would get at a hospital or doctor’s office, while the ECHO exam is modified to look for HCM, which is more specifically defined as an enlarged left ventricle.
Ms. Gizzi and her cardiologist friend have organized screenings to look for such potentially dangerous conditions. Their tests aren’t a full echocardiographic procedure, but, in the event the screening picks up any abnormality, the student would be referred to their own cardiologist.
The screenings will be offered to students between the ages of 14 and 20 at the Hillsborough Racquet Club on Amwell Road on Sunday, April 3, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The cost for both screenings is $70. Or they’ll be free to those who can show financial need.
The cardiologist will read the EKGs and echocardiograms, and parents may observe the screening and speak with the doctor. The whole process takes 10 minutes, she said.
There are two ways to register for the screenings. You can contact Ms. Gizzi, a registered nurse with a bachelor of science degree in nursing, at [email protected] or stop by the Hillsborough Racquet Club to sign up. A medical questionnaire will be available to complete in person or on line.
Direct questions to Ms. Gizzi at (609) 466-7600, ext. 6514.
Ms. Gizzi, 62, who was an emergency room nurse for 12 years before moving into public schools, said that Montgomery High lost a student in 2003 from sudden cardiac death. It piqued her occupational curiosity, and she and the school’s athletic director, Tony Maselli, began to track news events and found that many youngsters on the average one every few days nationwide fall from sudden cardiac death.
She found a Cranbury-based cardiologist willing to bring his $65,000 EKG and ECHO machine to a screening for 300 kids. The tests did find one student with “huge hole” in his heart, she said.
”If we didn’t find that, he probably would have died before 30,” she said. The youngster underwent open heart surgery to correct the problem.
The doctor, who wishes to remain low key, wanted to continue the program, but not with his expensive, office-size machine. He agreed to buy a portable EKG machine at $35,000, and to take it to as many screenings as Ms. Gizzi could arrange. Ms. Gizzi said it’ll take years to pay off the machine, and she agreed to chip in to offset some of the payments in months where no screenings are scheduled. She’s planning to continue the program over the long term, even after she retires.
They’ve been to nine high schools in the last year, and screened 400 to 450 kids, she said.
People buy kids phones and other niceties that cost hundreds of dollars, she said. Her program aims to encourage parents to spend far less to have these screenings, which would cost $500 or more at a doctor’s office, she said.
It’s a matter of life and death, she believes.