Screening to save lives

About 65 eighth-graders came down to Memorial Junior High School on Oct. 3 to undergo a free echocardiogram screening, courtesy of the Jason F. Gruen Research Foundation. The testing was performed by Dr. Fred Bierman, chief pediatric cardiologist for Schneider’s Children’s Hospital.

Susan Gruen Helsinger, founder of the Jason F. Gruen Research Foundation, said that early identification of heart irregularities is the key to preventing loss of life. “A regular physical check up is not sufficient enough to detect a life threatening heart abnormality,” she said.

Gruen Helsinger lost her son Jason in 1985 when he died suddenly from a heart ailment while he walked into class at Manhasset High School. Jason was a sophomore, and suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart disease where the heart muscle becomes abnormally thick and restricts blood flow.

“I started this foundation because I wanted to keep his memory alive and because we wanted to do research in the field of pediatric cardiology to find out what we could do to save our children,” Gruen Helsinger said.

Initially, the foundation helped build a children’s heart center at what is now New York Presbyterian Hospital. It also awards research grants to explore pediatric cardiology and sudden death in children. Gruen Helsinger’s foundation has done heart screenings in the Bellmore-Merrick and Long Beach school districts. The foundation has screened more than 1,000 teenagers, and uncovered heart abnormalities in 25 kids.