Dear Play for Patrick supporters, participants, and volunteers:

We have had a busy March with screenings in Stillwater and Maple Grove!  We want to share our results of each screen, but more importantly express our sincere thanks to those who helped make these important, lifesaving screens a reality.

As you know, without cardiologists to anchor the screenings, we are not able to conduct our events. We are thrilled to have found support from several cardiologists, including U of M cardiologists Dr. Marc Pritzker and Dr. Ryan Koene, Dr. Shaun Martinho and Dr. Robert Wilson.  We owe you a debt of gratitude and a heartfelt thank you! We look forward to your continued support.

Another critical aspect to every screen are our hosts.  These folks ensure we have the support of the school, refreshments for our volunteers, and assist in ensuring we have enough volunteers and students to have a successful screen.  To that end, we'd like to acknowledge the teams from Stillwater and Maple Grove:

Stillwater

• Heidi Johnson for asking P4P to come to her community
• Merchants- Bruegger’s, Cub, Jimmie John’s, Kowalski’s, Target and Walmart for their donations 
• Stillwater Sunrise Rotary club for their financial & volunteer support
• Stillwater Area High School for their support and use of the gym

Maple Grove

• Amy & Lucia Halstrom for their inspiration and asking P4P to come to Maple Grove
• ISD 279 Nurse Elaine Forbes
• MGHS Principle Bart Becker for your efforts and allowing us to use your beautiful school
• Maple Grove Rotary club President Tom Pellegino and his fellow Rotarians for their financial & volunteer support

And a very special thank you to Jason Anderson and Philips Healthcare for allowing us to use your Ultrasound machines and Roy Schroeder, Tammy Hartman and their teammates at Clear Channel Outdoor for promoting our events.

Finally, for these two screenings we had nearly 200 medical (EKG and Echo Techs, MDs, nurses and emergency responders) and non-medical volunteers.  While we can't list everyone individually, we know who you are and what you stand for. You are the lifeblood of our operation. Your commitment to partnering with us to help identifying potentially life-threatening heart defects does not go unnoticed.   We thank you for your time, talent, and service.

And now we would like to share the score from our events…

Stillwater

• Screened: 149 kids
• 7 had high/elevated blood pressure after recheck
• 10 were normal with minor variants
• 2 were abnormal with varying defects
• Taught CPR and AED usage to 75+ people

Maple Grove

• Screened: 121 kids
• 14 with high/elevated blood pressure after recheck
• 13 were normal with minor variants
• 7 were abnormal with varying defects
• Taught CPR and AED usage to 100+ people

Between the two screenings, we identified:

• An Atrial septal defect (ASD)- a small hole in the heart
• Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW)- a cardiac electrical abnormality that can potentially lead to life threatening arrhythmias
• One case of bicuspid aortic valve with normal aortic size
• Multiple cases of atrial septal aneurysm, several of which had evidence of flow through probable patent foramen ovale
• Several with recurrent syncope without documentation as to cause
• A surprising high incidence of diastolic blood pressure in the high 80s and 90s 
• A fair number of normal variant electrocardiogram results

This is why we are committed to screening each and every teen: the screenings bring attention to previously undiagnosed issues and fundamentally save lives.

We'll be reaching out to some of you to gather feedback on how we can improve our events, as well as putting together our schedule for next season soon.  Until then, Play with Heart & Play for Patrick!

The Schoonovers & the entire Play for Patrick Team