This is Shadvina. This beautiful, 16-year old high schooler was the younger sister of my very good friend, author Chesya Burke. In August, Shadvina collapsed after working out at her Atlanta, Georgia-area high school gym and died en route to the hospital. Her family was stunned to find out that it was from a congenital heart defect that they didn't even know that she had.Chesya and her family recently did a local news interview to let everyone know about what they are doing to make sure this doesn't happen to other students. They have started a foundation called "A Little Bit of Shadvina's Heart" and are promoting Smart Heart scan screenings for student athletes. This positive effort has already helped ID two student athletes who were unaware of their possible conditions!
If you have or know a student athlete, please encourage them to get checked out ASAP!!
7 comments:
Oh how sad, Elle!
Hope the hand is fully healed now.
Elle! That's so sad! It's good that her family is doing something in her memory that will help, already has helped, others. What a shock that must have been to all of them. She was a beautiful girl.
How sad. I think the heart screening process should absolutly be done for all student althelets. When my daughter was playing basketball in high school we had her take an ekg for this very reason. My husband has a heart problem that nearly killed him as a young adult. He was lucky. I hope the Burke family effort is heard, I know it could save lives.
Thank you for sharing this information Elle. I do have a student athlete, in college now, and I will ask her coach about screening the whole team.
I sincerely hope that the coach will do those scans too! I was surprised that it wasn't required of student athletes.
She certainly is a beautiful girl. Our eldest son died at 16 from a congenital heart defect, too. It hurts. My love to her family.
oh elle, she was so pretty. sounds like every active teenager should get that scan.
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