Oregon Public Broadcasting

Doctors say out of every hundred children born, at least one is born with some type of heart abnormality.  Sometimes the problem can be harmless.  In other cases, the problem can be very serious and even deadly.

Young athletes are particularly at risk, and that has some trying to figure out how to catch potential problems before it’s too late.

David Nogueras / OPB

The date was February 3rd, 2011.  Dallas High School’s wrestling team was on the road at Silverton High School.  With seconds left to go in his match, Dallas heavyweight Charlie Engelfried caught his opponent.  Dallas Coach Tony Olliff looked on as his young wrestler put his opponent on his back, pinning him for the win.

“And he got up, shook hands, had his hand raised.  He went over and shook the opposing coach's hand.  And on his way back it looked to us like he had tripped,” says Olliff.

But Engelfried didn’t get back up.  He died on the way to the hospital.  Charlie Engelfried was 17 years-old.

Olliff wells up when he remembers that night.  He says he went to bed thinking maybe Engelfried somehow hit his head on the way down.

“I didn’t know for sure really until the autopsy results a day or two later that it was his heart,” says Olliff.

What nobody knew at the time was that Charlie Engelfried suffered from a condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.  It’s a genetic condition that causes an abnormal thickening of the walls of the heart. 

David Nogueras / OPB

Urszula Tajchman is a pediatric cardiologist with the Heart Center at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend. She says the condition is dangerous because it tends to cause the heart to beat abnormally.  And she says that can cause a sudden and dramatic loss of blood pressure.

“It’s not unusual for that to go undetected. You can be completely asymptomatic and sudden death can be your first symptom,” says Tajchman.

In Oregon, high school athletes are required to get a physical every two years. But detailed heart screenings aren’t part of that requirement.  One of the reasons for that, says Tajchman, is the balance between cost and risk.  In a population of nearly 4 million, Oregon sees on average only about one death each year linked to a heart defect.  She says for that reason, the American Heart Association is against mandatory testing for student athletes.

“It’s a very rare occurrence, but if its happens to you its devastating,” says Tajchman.

So in the absence of mandatory testing, grassroots efforts have struggled to fill the gap.

Students from Sisters High School stream out of bus at a free screening held last night at Bend’s St. Charles Medical Center. 

Once they’re inside, volunteers will measure the height and weight of the students.  Medical staff will give each of them an EKG, which measures the heart’s electrical conduction as well as an echo cardiogram, which is basically an ultrasound of the heart.

Urszula Tajchman has been putting on these screenings for the better part of decade.  But there’s one case that stands out in her mind.

It happened three years ago. Bend resident Cheryl Rogers was flipping though the paper when she noticed an article about one of Tajchman’s free heart screenings. 

Her daughter Christy was just 16 at the time and training to take part her third junior nationals as a competitive swimmer.   So without giving it much thought she signed her daughter up.  She remembers Christy was supposed to go - pretty much right from the pool -  to her screening appointment.

“So after swim practice she actually called me and said 'Can I just come home?  I’m starving.  I don’t need to go to this.  Just let me come home.'  Usually I cave because who wants a hungry kid especially after she’s worked out so hard.  And I just said 'Oh don’t worry about it.  It probably won’t take long.  Just go on over there," says Rogers.

Christy did go.  And minutes after getting home, they got a call from the nurse asking both of them to meet with Tajchman first thing the next morning. 

There, they were told that the screen found a large aortic aneurysm just above a valve on Christy’s heart.  It was like a thin balloon that could have burst at any time.  Training for junior nationals was now out of the question.  Christy was going to need open heart surgery - and soon.

After the meeting, Rogers walked with her daughter out into the parking lot.

“She just looks at me and just says, 'Thanks for saving my life, Mom.'  To come out of her...you know she’s sixteen.  And she just looks at me and says, 'Thanks for saving my life,” Rogers remembers.

Rogers, on the other hand says the real life saver was the free clinic that she read about by chance, as she scanned the morning newspaper.