Bellmore-Merrick Central District screening students, saving lives

The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District and the Jason Gruen Foundation recently tested 150 ninth-graders over two weekends, checking their hearts with advanced portable electrocardiogram and echocardiogram machines. Screenings took place at Calhoun High School in Merrick on Jan. 9 and 16.

The screenings were open to all Central District freshmen, as well as any local ninth-graders who attend private or parochial schools. Screenings were voluntary.

Turns out, eight of the tested students had heart problems –– four of them serious enough that the students needed to be seen by a cardiologist. One of them had a heart defect that was so critical, it could have resulted in death if he had exerted himself just a little too hard.

“If he had shoveled snow, he probably would not have made it,” said Susan Helsinger, who started the Jason Gruen Foundation in honor of her son, who died of heart failure on April 6, 1985, at age 15. “It’s very scary.”

The foundation annually sponsors the heart screenings, which doctors, nurses and technicians from the Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park conduct. The Jason Gruen Foundation donated the portable EKG and echocardiogram machinery to the hospital.

Helsinger noted the cooperation that she has received from the Bellmore-Merrick Central School District, which, she said, “has been wonderful in continuing the screenings.” In particular, she cited the work of nurse Cynthia Johnson.

Eric Caballero, the Central District’s director of health, phys. ed. and athletics, said, “We could have saved 10 kids from a potentially debilitating health scare.”