Latest / We're With You / From Heartbreak to Heart Health | EP Save A Life

Transcript

From Heartbreak to Heart Health | EP Save A Life · We're With You

• Rhina: or or you know so I never asked for an EKG. I never knew that shortness of breath is one of the signs that a child can have a heart condition. So I feel like in a way I didn't advocate for Eric the way that a mom should have in a nurse. But back then I didn't know. So you don't know? Well you don't know. Adjoin: The voice you just heard is Rena Parades Greason, Eric's mom. In 2009, Eric was 15 years old. He was an athlete, seemingly healthy, and had recently been seen by a doctor. There was no reason his parents, Rena and Hector, believed they were about to lose their son. But on July 23rd, Eric went into sudden cardiac arrest at home and died. In the aftermath, Hector and Rena left trying to understand how this could happen to a healthy 15-year-old. And whether there was something they could do to keep it from happening to another family. That question would eventually become the Eric Paradez Save a Life Foundation. More than 15 years later, the foundation has provided free heart screenings to more than 46,000 young people and uncovered hundreds of previously unknown heart conditions. For this episode, we spoke separately with Hector, Rena, and the Foundation's new executive director, Amanda Baumann. But before the foundation, the screenings, and everything that came after, there was Eric. This is his story. This is We're With You. But first, before we talk about what happened to Eric, we want you to know who he was. Hector: Eric liked to be seen, right? so growing up, I used to tell him to settle down. and then as he became a teenager, I started realizing that that was his personality. His personality is he was very confident. And it was kind of contrary to mine being. I've always believed in, you know, just stay humble, stay, stay low. when I was in school, I was rarely the one that raised his hand, you know, just didn't want to be noticed. Eric was not that way. he was a jokester. He loved to show or demonstrate his affection for everybody. But one of the things I I remember about him most is because of his affection. So he he kind of had a girlfriend, his freshman year. Towards the end of the year, I was coming into the family room, and this really kind of highlights who he was. And I heard him hanging up, but he said to the person on the line, I love you. And he said, No, Dad, that wasn't Carly, that was Britton, one of his male best friends. And I said, You tell your friends you love them, your male friends. He says, I tell them that all the time. You know, so it was it was something that, you know, to this day, I try to do that as well with my friends. You know, because for some reason, seems like dudes, we just don't do a very good job with that, right? but Eric somehow was felt confident about saying that at 15. Adjoin: Hector remembers Eric as confident, affectionate, and completely comfortable telling the people in his life that he loved them. Rena remembers how intensely he threw himself into the things he cared about. Rhina: when he passed away he was 15 years old. But just to tell you a little bit about Eric, since birth he was just a huge personality. He was born at 10 pounds, super big. even growing up, he was always happy and just the life of the party. He made friends so easily. just he was super athletic, loved football, he loved wrestling. He really invested his time in doing more than just the regular kid. I would I remember I woke up one in the middle of the night one time and he was like it was like two o'clock in the morning and he was like practicing his wrestling moves in front of a mirror. because he wanted to be the best one at wrestling. so he really put a hundred percent all the time. He was also a great dancer too, by the way. Yes, he belonged to a group downtown and he do classes. I took him to lessons all the time, like twice a week and he really, really loved that. Now Adjoin: And Eric was beginning to think about what came next. Hector: we did do actually the week before he died, I had gone back to the field as an administrative position and I took him out on a ride-along in a patrol car. And yeah, it was that previous week. And he he was in awe of doing that. I could tell that it was a kind of a special, it was a special moment for both of us. Again, you know, just kind of reinforcing it as a dad. That I had a son who just so liked what I enjoyed doing. Adjoin: Eric was vibrant, full of life, and just beginning to imagine his future. And within a short amount of time, Hector and Rena be facing the unimaginable loss that any parent would have to go through. The loss of their son. Rhina: it was going to be my parents' 50th anniversary around that time. So we were gonna be celebrating and we're all gonna be going on a cruise. So my parents were flying from San Salvador actually that from El Salvador actually the day that Eric passed away. So I was with Eric at home. For a coup few days we had been packing for this cruise. We were going with family and friends. And I was home with Eric. It was just Eric and I. And Eric asked me to come to the computer room to listen to the music that he was downloading in his iPod. And it was from a new group that he had just discovered. And he wanted me to hear that music. So I listened to the songs and I really loved him and we talked about it and he was really excited. I told him that I was going to go to an appointment and that I was gonna come back in a few hours. So I actually was the last one to be to see Eric alive. So I said goodbye. He did ask me, Mom, when are you going to come back? And because as a teenager, I was like, why do you want to know? And so I stepped out and I said I mean I said goodbye, I stepped out and went to this appointment. But when I was in my appointment, I turned off my phone. Hector: It was July 23rd, 2009. And unfortunately, I remember every aspect of it. I had gone to a meeting in the morning up in Ramona. And as I came back, we lived in Rancho San Diego. I thought, well, here we are, it's summertime. We were getting ready. Actually, it was a Thursday. We had a couple other families. We were getting ready to go on a Cruise with a couple other families. So I think Jessica and Rhina out and about doing things. And I figured I'd stop by to see what Eric was up to. Probably had a friend over. In fact, I knew he did. Britain had spent the night. So as I came in the front door, I heard music, his loud hip hop music playing. because he was also known for being a dancer. So as I came in the door, I heard the music loud and I didn't see him. And I I was thinking, okay, here comes a prank. I thought he was gonna pop out from a closet. so I actually went through the house. And I didn't see him. He didn't jump out. And then when I came back to the kitchen, I saw him collapse on the kitchen floor in front of the refrigerator. So I called 911. I began CPR. And we only lived a couple miles away. No, not even that. About a mile and a half away from the closest firehouse. And it seemed like they were there in a few minutes. you know, they they continued CPR and they took took our son to Grossmont Hospital. And and we lost him there. So they weren't able to resuscitate him. Rhina: And after I finished the appointment and I turned off, I turned on my phone, I had like 30 messages. And I was like, The messages read, Where are you? Eric is in the hospital or where are you? Eric is really sick. And it was like I I wasn't really grasping what those messages were because an hour ago I was with Eric and Eric was fine. So I had no idea what they meant. So I called my daughter and she was crying on the phone and she says, Mom, you need to come. to Grossman Hospital because Eric is really sick. We don't know what's going on with him. so as I was talking to Jessica, somebody else grabbed her phone and said, Where are you? We can go pick you up where you are. And I said, no, I'm gonna, I'll drive myself. So I got in my car. Actually it was Comic Con weekend and the parking lot it was packed and I was afraid that I was not gonna find my car because I was a mess. And I found my car. got in my car and drove to Grossman Hospital and parked in the emergency room. And when I got to the emergency room, somebody was waiting for me outside and they brought me into the hospital and I remember walking by a lot of people that I knew that were there and they seemed that people were crying, but I still did not grasp to what was going on until they took me to a room and they took Hector, Jessica and I into a room and they told us that Eric had passed away. Adjoin: In the days that followed, Hector and Rena would begin asking questions about Eric's heart and what had happened medically. But first, Rena was trying to understand something much more fundamental. How do you keep living after your child dies? Rhina: Yeah, I I remember thinking, my gosh, I don't know anybody who has lost a child. And I re vividly remember thinking, What am I supposed to do? Am I gonna die? Am I gonna survive this? Am I going to be able to live through this? And I remember like 'cause Facebook was kind of starting then, I remember like posting on Facebook, you know, like It does somebody know anybody who's lost a child? Can somebody talk to me? I I didn't know what to do, really. I w I felt really, really alone. And I felt that I wanted to have a role model. I wanted to have somebody that had gone through this that could guide me. And I think that this is why now I wanna be that person for anyone else that has lost a child. And throughout this fifteen years that sixteen, seventeen years that Eric s has p passed away, I have I have made myself find those women who have lost children to be able to talk to them, to be able for them to see me, that I actually have makeup on, have earrings on, that I took a shower because when you're going through so much pain and grief, you feel like you can't function. So I want them to see me that I actually survived this and that that if I can survive this, they hopefully will too. But Adjoin: Rena, part of moving forward became being that person she once needed. Showing other parents living through unimaginable loss that it was possible to survive. But surviving the loss and understanding why it happened were two different things. Hector was searching for answers too, and his questions were increasingly centered on what happened inside Eric's heart. Hector: you in the days that followed, if I kept hearing things because of you know Rhina's connection to her hospital. We we did we have a lot of we had a lot of medical friends, docs that came by, and I kept hearing the term sudden cardiac arrest. And I then we can talk about this later. I attributed, wait a minute, my son had a heart attack, because that's what people think. And they're actually two separate things. And I kept hearing the term hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. being thrown around. I I keep hearing all these terms. Just I was so confused, you know, about that. Adjoin: Sudden cardiac arrest isn't the same thing as a heart attack. And as Hector and Rena learned more about what happened to Eric, they also started looking backward. Were there any warning signs? Hector: Something that we boy, we beat our heads looking back. Rhina Eric's mom is an RN registered nurse, and she was a great mom. I mean, she took them if they coughed more than a day, they're going to the doctor. I used to think it was a little overkill, for me, again, being the stere stereotypical dad, when he would complain sometimes of shortness of breath, I would say, Well, it sounds like you're out of shape. And we lived over by Valhalla High School. So I'd say, you know, there's a football field right behind us. You should be out there running gassers. The more you run, you know, the more in shape you'll be and you won't have these problems. So whether there's that was an indication, I'm not real sure, but there were at times that he was prescribed an inhaler. Rhina: they were pretty healthy. the only symptom that Eric ever, ever, ever said to me was that he was short of breath when he exercised. But as we know, we are short of breath when we exercise, right? And I still took him to his doctor's appointments and they tested him and they said he's fine. they gave him an inhaler that he could use during exercise thinking that it was probably asthma or you know, asthma induced shortness of breath or or you know so I never asked for an EKG. I never knew that shortness of breath is one of the signs that a child can have a heart condition. So I feel like in a way I didn't advocate for Eric the way that a mom should have in a nurse. But back then I didn't know. So you don't know? Well you don't know. Adjoin: And for any parent listening, it's hard not to put yourself in Hector in Rena's shoes. Your child seems healthy. You take them to the doctor. You pay attention when something doesn't seem right. What else are you supposed to do? Rena was a nurse. Hector spent his career in law enforcement responding to medical emergencies all the time. And even with all of that knowledge and experience, neither had been given a reason to know that Eric could be at risk for sudden cardiac arrest. That became part of what Hector and Rena wanted to change. Rhina: So this is also very important to mention because the cardiac questionnaire that we always ask, and that needs to be asked also at the doctor's office, like what are your symptoms? Do you have shortness of breath? Have you fainted? during exercise or right after exercise, which as we know, it's one of the biggest red flags that there might be a heart condition. Or if you ask in that questionnaire, like do you have you had a family member die under the age of 50 for unknown reasons? All those things are extremely important. And if a child has lived with those symptoms all of their lives and you don't ask about them, they think that that's something I'm that's something normal that they can live with. so after Eric passed away, in the coroner told us that Eric passed away from an arrhythmia that we did not know that he had. We started doing a lot of research about sudden cardiac arrest. And of course, we found out that could be genetic, right? something inherited in all of us. So of course, Hector and I got tested. It you know, we got checked by a cardiologist, which happens to be our medical advisor now, Dr. John Rogers. just to make sure that there was nothing abnormal that we pass on to Eric. so Dr. Rogers checked us out and we were all clear, we were fine. He mentioned to us that there was an organization called Parent Heart Watch that does you know, heart screenings and and they do a lot of with sudden cardiac arrest. So I found out that they were having a conference. So Eric passed away in July. They were having a conference the next January. And so we decided to go to this conference to meet other parents also who have lost kids to sudden cardiac arrest because again, we wanted to meet other parents just like us. Adjoin: About six months after Eric died, Hector and Rena attended a parent heart watch conference. at that conference, they encountered families in other states doing something they had never seen before, heart screenings for young people. Rhina: Eric was completely healthy living a perfect life, doing the right things, and he passed. So we wanted to meet parents like us. So we flew in January to this conference, which it w this that year was in Texas. And we got to meet other parents and we got to see what kind of work they were doing all over the United States. And I was talking to other parents who were doing heart screenings in other states and for some reason I felt like That was something that I felt like we could accomplish here in San Diego. I didn't back then, I at that moment I didn't know how, but I felt like we could at least give it a try. So I learned also in that conference that like two months later, there was another family that was going to be doing a heart screening somewhere in San Francisco. So I actually flew to San Francisco. To just witness that heart screening in what it was, because I had no idea. What do they do in a heart screening? So I flew over there. I spent a couple of days with that family. I remember that the Sunday that they were doing the screening, I was just really observing what they did to see if it was something possible that we could do here in San Diego. Because I felt like me being a nurse, I had access to. doctors and nurses in if we're gonna be doing something, it had to be with people that I know at work. So I remember vividly sitting in the gym, at the gym, in just watching the different stations and thinking we can do this. I I don't know how, but I'll just bring it back home to Doctor Rogers. 'Cause he worked in my same hospital and I knew that he was a a renowned cardiologist. And I came back, I talked to him, I said, Hey, other families are doing this in other parts of the states. And is it something that you would be interested in doing with us? And he looked at me and I vividly remember him saying, my gosh, he goes, I've always wanted to do this. Just like that, like no questions asked. Like, yes, let's do it. Let's figure it out together and let's make it work. So that's really how we started. Adjoin: From there the foundation began to take shape. They started small, relying on borrowed equipment. Medical professionals who volunteered their time and people who simply believed in what Hector and Rena were trying to build. speaker-1: it's the genuine, wonderful people that Hector and Rhina are separately. they both bring so much and there's so many people that that truly love them and want to support them and their family. The volunteers outside of you in the medical community are people that knew Eric growing up, their families that were around him. Adjoin: Dr. John Rogers came on as the foundation's medical director, helping establish the medical side of the screenings. And along the way, the equipment and resources they needed began to come together. What started with two parents, an idea, and a community willing to help was becoming something much bigger. And the numbers would eventually show just how much it was needed. Hector: they definitely evolved. The first one that we had was primary prevention that we talked about is screen your teens. In fact, that is a we have patented that term, screen your teen, as well. So it was about screening children, You know, I'm grateful to so many people, volunteers, professionals. We have now screened over 46,000 kids or something like that. And we have found about over seven hundred kids at risk of sudden cardiac arrests, meaning that those children had to follow up for some type of treatment procedure, something like that. Adjoin: like you, we were astounded when we heard the numbers. What EP Save Alive has accomplished is truly remarkable. But what they've uncovered is also equally terrifying. Since its founding, they have screened 46,469 young people and identified 709. Previously unknown heart abnormalities. of those abnormalities, 412 were conditions that put a young person at immediate risk for sudden cardiac arrest. Those numbers speak to the impact of the organization, but they also raise a much bigger question. How many young people are walking around right now, including your own child with a heart condition they don't know that they have? That could be fatal. Rhina: you know, we find different things during heart screening. We have things that are as simple as a child being watched and monitored for the next, you know, few years to kids who have to take medication, to kids who have a simple procedure, to kids who end up having open heart surgery. So I mean, meeting a family whose child's life may have changed because of Eric is really one of the most incredible experiences that I can say that I have had. It feels like Eric's life continued to have purpose. we had a girl that she was found to have long QT syndrome, which is a cardiac arrhythmia. And when we found her at risk, because a lot of things are genetic, her mom, I think it was she had a a brother. So I guess the brother in one of the parents was also found at risk. Because we found her, we found other family members as well that had the same condition that she did. And then now she is in medical school and she's gonna become a doctor. And we also another story that we have is we found this kid, I guess he goes to I think it's Mission Bay High School. His name is Carson. We founded him about we found him about ten years ago. And he had something WPW, which is also an a cardiac arrhythmia. And his mom has been a volunteer, faithful volunteer at every single screening. Ever since they fixed the ca arrhythmia that Carson had. And now Carson is because he came to volunteer all the time and he loved it. So he went to nursing school. He's now a nurse. And he actually works in my hospital. So I get to see Carson. Adjoin: This is what prevention looks like when it works. More than fifteen years later, EP Save a Life is entering an exciting new chapter. Amanda Bauman recently stepped into the role of executive director. She came to the organization with years of nonprofit experience but was new to sudden cardiac arrest. Amanda: so I looked at the website and then when I I met Rena and Hector during my first interview. It was hard because I was eight months pregnant. So that also didn't help. Raging hormones are very real. and I it was in an interview, so right, you have to keep yourself together during an interview. That was so hard. it's just so moving. And as a parent in particular, thinking your child is fine and being so proud of them and they're at the healthiest part of their life, they're young, they're an athlete, they're doing all the things. as a nurse knowing so much about health and caring so deeply about health. And and Hector being a first responder, he knows the s how things is well. He knows how to handle a crisis. He knows the scary things to look for. And for it to take somebody like that, somebody like them by surprise, to me was like it can take anyone by surprise. And that is horrific and terrifying and not something that I want to experience and I know I don't want anyone else to experience. So I cried. and then I just was so in admiration of the two of them or taking that just immense pain and turning it into something that can benefit other people. I feel like they could have so easily been crushed. They could have easily been defeated and not turned their pain into action and they did. And I don't know how they found that strength. So in equal measure I was so sorry for them, but then also just so inspired by them as people. and eager to get to know them better and to be a part of doing good in their son's name. Adjoin: So what does prevention look like at EP Save a Life? For thousands of young people, it has meant access to heart screenings they otherwise may have never received. Hector: So they will go through our line, they will learn about hands-only CPR after going through registration. They will meet with nurses that will go over their paperwork and look at their medical history to make sure all that is properly completed. And then they'll get an EKG. It's an electrocardiogram. So every EKG is read by a cardiologist. And quite honestly, every one of those that are even questionable will be ultimately seen by Dr. Rogers. He still reviews every screening. Adjoin: and we just want to reiterate this. All of this is provided to the families for free. Amanda estimates that the cardiac testing available at a screening can be worth as much as $2,000 for a single child. Across more than 46,000 young people that have received these screenings, EP Save a Life has provided nearly $93 million worth of cardiac screening and medical services back into the community. Again, at no cost to the families receiving them. That access gives family the opportunity to find a risk before an emergency happens. An emergency just like Eric's. But EP Save a Life's approach to prevention doesn't just stop there. Amanda: Yeah, so we've talked a lot about screenings. And that for us is the first stage of prevention. There's a second stage that's equally as important, and that is response. So making sure people know how to respond when they experience or see a sudden cardiac arrest. That's knowing how to do hands only CPR. That's knowing to not be afraid of an AED. That's something I had to learn coming here. I've been trading C P R for past jobs, but an AED, I thought that was Something for the EMS to use when they arrived, not for me to use as a bystander. Please, as a bystander, open up that box and use the AED. You turn it on and it gives you all of the instructions step by step. You will not get hurt. You will not hurt the person that may or may not receive the shock. This the AED is so smart it knows if it needs to give a shock. It's not up to your discretion. You don't have to be smart to figure that out. You just hit the button and it does its thing. And an AED is what will save someone from sudden cardiac arrest. If you're nervous about using an AED, come to our screenings. We train every person that walks through our doors on hands-only CPR and how to use an AED. Hector: and now we have essentially trained. Thousands, I guess, if you want to take credit for the thousands of total families that have come through that we have exposed this. We actually have one of our board members, he is a member because, and his his actually wife was a superintendent of one of the school districts down in South Bay. he had a sudden cardiac arrest event at home. And because his son Learn hands-only CPR at one of our events. He immediately began doing CPR and his father and saved his life. So, you know, this stuff works. You Adjoin: This left us with an obvious question. The organization has found previously unknown heart abnormalities in approximately 1.5% of the young people they've screened. And nationally, an estimated one in three hundred young people is living with an undetected heart condition. So why isn't cardiac screening part of routine care? The answer isn't simple. Amanda: there are differing opinions within the medical profession, amongst cardiologists about sudden cardiac arrest and the need for screenings. I think that's a first kind of barrier is there's not uniform support for making screenings mandatory. For a variety of valid reasons. It can produce an anxiety. It could lead to nothing. If the families have fewer resources, that could be a medical expense that is overwhelming for them. Where we come from is from a place of not wanting any family to lose their child. So for us, if they had gone through that screening and found something that could take their child from them, it's worth it. Eric and Rena didn't have the opportunity to have their son screened. And they lost him. And they have parents all over the country that they've met that have lost their children for that same reason. They didn't get the opportunity to have their kids screened. So whether or not it adds a little extra stress or a couple of barriers for them, all of that, and for me as a parent also, all of that would be worth it if I could save my child's life. Adjoin: Hector has heard the argument about false positive for years. He doesn't believe the answer is to pretend those concerns don't exist. His question is, what are we going to do about them? Hector: And I don't I don't care if people critique and give countering information. That's fine. But offer a solution. Then you can say the false positives or 8% or, you know, or the I I've heard that for many years. What's the solution? What do we do? How do we change that? How do we bring that number down? Adjoin: and for Rena, the issue will never be purely theoretical. She was the parent who did not know. Rhina: Well, this is something that I always tell every parent is just because your child looks healthy, it doesn't mean that they are heart healthy. So Eric looked completely healthy, epitome of health. He was, you know, five ten and he was, you know, a hundred and fifty, sixty pounds, super healthy, athletic, lean. I would have never in my entire life would have thought that this would happen to Eric. So We can't say that just because they look healthy that they are heart healthy. You know, something else that parents say, if my child passes sports physical, their heart is fine. I mean, sports physicals are really important, but they're not designed to detect many of the underlying heart conditions that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest. Adjoin: And that brings us back to the other side of the calculation. We can talk about potential costs of screenings, additional testing, and the possibility of false positives. But what is the cost when something is missed? For Rena, the answer extends. Far beyond one child. Rhina: so many obstacles, so many fights, so many legislation, so many signing letters for something that it's so obvious, so evident and we're not just talking about changing the landscape in a building. We're changing, talking about saving lives and saving children. Can you imagine how much the death of a child, how much it changes a family, immediate family that, you know, it grandparents in schools in the h entire community. Because I can tell you that The entire community here where we live was completely affected by Eric. by Eric's death. It just changes so much. Multiply that by millions of kids who have died from sudden cardiac arrest. It's just incredible. Adjoin: And this is where EP Save a Life work becomes bigger than the screenings themselves. Because right now, so much of prevention still depends on an individual knowing what to look for. A parent has to know the warning signs. A coach has to recognize when something isn't right. A school or sports program has to be prepared for cardiac emergency. Someone has to know where the AED is and be willing to use it. EP Save a Life is working to change that. Over the years, Hector and Rena have taken what they've learned after losing Eric and pushed for some of those protections to become part of the system surrounding young people, including through legislation in California. Hector: Well we we have passed some legislation. But they're there are awareness legislations, quite honestly, for coaches. Our first law that we passed in 2016 was regarding coaches being required to know the symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest and then what to do about it. And then certain symptoms they would have to take a you know, a young person out of the sport until they got medically cleared. Right. So they're required to get certified every couple of years. We actually have a video that it's on its use statewide off our website. And that was our first law. Actually, and then we amended it to include private clubs, sports clubs, too, because it only applied to public schools at first. Adjoin: And that work has continued. EP Save a Life has advocated for requirements around cardiac emergency response planning and access to AEDs in youth sports, while also pushing to get CPR education in front of more students. For Amanda, legislation is part of addressing a difficult reality. Knowing what works doesn't necessarily mean those practices become a standard on their own. Amanda: because the momentum to make change is not usually done naturally, we are pursuing legislation to make sure things get changed. because there's a resistance and it's challenging. It's you have to solve a number of problems to get an AED out of every practice and at every game, but it's important to do. So even if it's a challenging hurdle to overcome, it needs to be done so that this isn't happening to more kids. So we are pursuing legislation to make sure that the kids are safe, no matter what the the hurdle may be. Adjoin: So what are Hector, Rena, and Amanda ultimately working toward? A future where finding these conditions doesn't depend on a family knowing to look for them. Amanda: would include easy access to EKGs. All kids would get them on a regular basis every two to three years at their well child visits. Our our founders have had a dream of that happening. If if they could make that happen in Eric's memory, that would be just an speaker-2: the most amazing. Amanda: accomplishment for them. To screen every child. And that's always the question, right? Nonprofits, our hope is to go out of business. The number of nonprofits that actually go out of business from hit hitting their mission is very few and far between. but if we could do that, if we could help make that happen, at least in California. something we're always working towards be speaker-2: that was Amanda: a huge, huge win for us, a success is to get EKGs for kids on a regular basis at their doctor's visits. Adjoin: Rena describes that future even more simply. Rhina: So in the ideal world, I would love to see heart screenings be part of pre-participation sports physicals and well checkups. I wish that it was as easy as when you take your kids to get their vision checked. You know, something that can be done all the time. And not only done when a child is experiencing symptoms. or when a child, you know, dies. So I that my ultimate fantasy would be that everybody, every child would be able to get a heart screening, an EKG, a cardiac questionnaire in a echocardiogram. Adjoin: but that future is still a long-term goal. In the meantime, EP Save a Life is continuing to provide these screenings for families who may not have access to this kind of cardiac testing anywhere else. And keeping that work going requires something very practical. Functioning medical equipment. Much of the equipment that the organization has used to screen more than forty six thousand young people is now reaching the end of its useful life. Amanda: all of those pieces of equipment are now reaching the end of their useful life, as is our truck. So I think my biggest hurdle is having a plan in place for all of the key players that make us move, make us possible, and then slowly replacing all of our equipment so we can keep doing this. I am so bought into the importance of this screening and that it's the only one available for our kids here in San Diego County. And that our Ability to change medical minds is a goal, but it's a long term goal. That's not gonna happen overnight. And in the meantime, we need to be here. We need to give this access for families and our machines need to work. speaker-2: You Amanda: So I'm I'm working on those. Those are my biggest challenges right now is is making sure we can be here for another fifteen years because this is so important. Adjoin: So where does that leave us today? Until heart screenings become routine, EP Save Alife still needs the resources to keep doing this really crucial work in the community. But for families, Rena's message is much simpler. Take advantage of what's already here. Rhina: I would want them to understand the importance of getting the heart screening done and to know that they can have take advantage of it. We do them six times a year, we do them for free. I don't understand how is po how is it possible that they don't take advantage of that. It's something that can save your child's life. And it's something that I wish I would have known and I would have gotten Eric a heart screening somewhere or asked for an EKG when he was complaining of shortness of breath. Perhaps this foundation wouldn't exist because Eric would be married with a career and with kids. Adjoin: EP Save a Life also depends on volunteers to make its screenings possible. And importantly, you do not need a medical background to help. Amanda: To make those screenings possible, we depend on knowledgeable volunteers and lay volunteers. So if you're a medical professional that's interested, we need medical professionals to do like RNs to do our medical history and blood pressure check, to put on the leads for our EKGs. If you're a doctor that's passionate about this, we would love to have your support. We'll connect you with Dr. Rogers. We need doctors at every single one of our screenings, and frankly, they're our most scarce resource. So if you're a cardiologist or a doctor that is now encouraged by this, interested in this, we would love to hear from you. They can email us at executive director at epsavealife.org or go to our website and learn more. we could use their help at our next screenings. We book them out a year in advance so they can book up their schedule for the rest of this year and for 2027. And then if you're just somebody that's passionate, share our information with your family, your community, and reach out to that same email address and you can come volunteer at our screenings. we don't just need medical professionals, we also need people to help us with the lines, to help the kids stay calm because some of them get a little nervous. At registration we need volunteers, we need people to help at our CPR station. So if you know CPR and are passionate about teaching CPR, we could use you at our CPR station. We basically need all hands and all capacities to make our work possible, and we would love to hear from anyone that's interested in learning more. Adjoin: there is one thing that Rena told us that we think explains the heart of this organization better than any statistic ever could. Over the years she has met other parents who have lost their children. Some have told her they wish they had the strength or resources to build something like Hector and Rena did. Rena tells them they don't have to. Rhina: it's not for everybody, and not everybody has to start something like what we do. you know, people say to me, I wish I could start something like that. And I go, You don't have to. We're doing it for your son too and for your daughter. We're not just doing it for Eric. We're doing it for any other family who doesn't have the strength that we did have. Adjoin: More than fifteen years later, the pain of losing Eric is still palpable when talking to Rena and Hector. But maybe more importantly, so is the purpose his parents built around his name. Rhina: Mm, well I feel like I guess while the pain of losing him is still there. He's his life continues to give me purpose. I feel like we have turned this incredible heartbreak into hope for others in That purpose lives into you know every heart screening that we do, that we're trying to save life and we're trying to educate people. we're saving lives, and that gives me great purpose. I feel like his his name will be out there for many, many years. And he's touched so many lives. We have saved so many kids. that it's it's a great legacy. And I feel like he's taught me that. his love doesn't end when somebody dies, it continues. Adjoin: Eric Perades should have had the chance to find out what came after 15. Hector and Rena never had the chance to know their son was at risk, and maybe more importantly, the opportunity to do something that might have saved his life. since then they've worked tirelessly to give other families what they never had, the chance to know, and the chance to save their child's life. about EP Save a Life, find an upcoming free heart screening, volunteer or make a donation, visit epsavealife.org. We'll also include those resources in the episode description. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you, Hector, Rena, and Amanda for trusting us with Eric's story. From all of us at We're With You, thank you so much for listening to this episode.