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FMC Hosts Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Youth Talk to Better Prepare Our Community
LANCASTER, Ohio (February 17, 2012) – On Feb. 11, people from across Ohio and as far as Michigan, attended a Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Youth presentation at Ohio University Lancaster hosted by Fairfield Medical Center.
Participants received up-to-date information on the warning signs of sudden cardiac arrest, what to do in a situation when someone needs help and the importance of knowing your family history for early detection.
Dr. Michael Ackerman, pediatric cardiologist and director of the Long QT Syndrome/Genetic Heart Rhythm Clinic at the Mayo Clinic.
Speakers included Dr. Michael Ackerman, an internationally renowned expert on the subject from the Mayo Clinic; Dr. Douglas Pope, FMC hospitalist and medical staff president; Alice Lara, Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes (SADS) Foundation president and CEO; Misty Morrison, sudden cardiac arrest survivor; and Clint Birkholz, father of a sudden cardiac arrest survivor.
“Between 250 and 600 young people die suddenly each month due to cardiac arrhythmias,” said Dr. Ackerman, a pediatric cardiologist and director of the Long QT Syndrome/Genetic Heart Rhythm Clinic at the Mayo Clinic. “Long QT Syndrome affects 1 in 2,000. That’s more than all childhood cancers combined.” These shocking statistics are what brought Dr. Ackerman to the community to speak.
At the end of the presentation the panel of speakers took questions from participants. As a leader in sudden cardiac arrest research, Dr. Ackerman was able to reach out to families who have experienced loss and be able to help them prevent it affecting other family members by early detection.
This event was coordinated by a group of concerned staff members at FMC who decided to do something to help protect the community against this life-threatening condition. The staff joined forces with some patients, families and other interested community members to form the Snider Community Heart Watch, a task force focused on community education.
The event was sponsored by the FMC Gordon B. Snider Cardiovascular Institute, the SADS Foundation, Ohio University Lancaster and Boston Scientific. For more information, call (740) 689-6893 or go to fmchealth.org.
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About the Gordon B. Snider Cardiovascular Institute:
Named after the physician who brought the first intensive care unit (ICU) to the Lancaster community, the Dr. Gordon B. Snider Cardiovascular Institute (CVI) has served as the medical catalyst to bring more than 30 Fairfield Medical Center physicians – from family practice and internal medicine to interventional radiology, nephrology, cardiology and surgery – for the improvement of current heart care practices and further advancement of heart care delivery to Southeastern Ohio patients. The CVI is led by a board with representatives from each medical field involved in the delivery of heart care services. Each board member leads a medical committee that has been assigned a specific quality goal for heart care improvement.
