Eric Paredes Save A Life Foundation A California Public Benefit Corp

Screen your teen provides free heart screenings to youth ages 12 to 25 to identify cardiac abnormalities that put 1 in 300 at risk for sudden cardiac arrest (sca). Heart screenings are not part of well-child checkups or pre-participation sports physicals, even though sca is the #1 killer of student athletes and the leading cause of death on school campuses. Screenings include a cardiac risk assessment, ekg (electrocardiogram), echocardiogram and consultation with a cardiologist. We have screened nearly 40,000 youth since 2010, which have found over 600 youth with previously unidentified cardiac abnormalities.

Save a heart save a life aed program places automated external defibrillators (aeds) and advocates for the implementation of cardiac emergency response plans anywhere youth congregate. Aeds are the only way to restart the heart of an sca victim, but are not mandated in all schools and youth centers. Every minute's delay in emergency response decreases the chance of survival by 10%, which is why 92% of sca victims die. It's critical for school communities to be as well-practiced in executing the cardiac chain of survival as they are in fire drills.