We're not letting American Heart
month end without a powerful
reminder of a genetic heart
condition that affects our youth.
It's called sudden arrhythmia death syndrome
or sadz joining us live this morning.
Doctor James Perry with Rady Children's
Hospital along with Rachel and Bella
Flores here to share their story.
Thanks so much for being here everyone.
Doctor Perry, let's start with you.
What is sad?
How does it impact our
children as well as adults?
Yeah, there are a number of heart rhythm
problems that can present in the young.
The estimate is about one in 1000 or so,
just to give people a ballpark.
So that means there are probably about 1000
under 18 just in San Diego County alone.
The conditions can be pretty quiet and
people can be healthy looking until they
have a dangerous heart rhythm event.
Lots of those events consist of a
true faint with exercise or activity,
so that's an important sign for
people to keep an eye out for
Rachel. Tell us a little
bit about Bella's story,
and then we'll chat with Bella too.
There was a moment that you knew
something was wrong, right?
Well, Bella was only seven years old when
she had her first faint cardiac episode.
We had absolutely no idea
that anything was going on.
She was seemingly a healthy child.
Like Doctor Perry said,
this is an invisible condition.
So looking like a normal healthy
child and you could still have
a rare condition like this.
So fortunately she was
diagnosed very young and.
I think that the the biggest thing
we want to share with people
is to advocate for yourself,
because these conditions are
rare and even though you may not
see that something is going on,
you really have to push for
research and and push for testing
to figure out what's going on.
Diagnosis is key.
It's been life changing for us.
Knowing what she has and life saving for her.
So Doctor Perry had a big hand in that.
So we're very thankful for all of his.
He diagnosed her with a
CPVT right? Can you explain?
Is that part of the SADS umbrella?
Yes it is. It's a genetic condition that
affects how the heart goes off electrically,
and it's got a very long name to it.
That's why we just abbreviated CPVT.
But it's basically a lot of adrenaline
in your system at the time.
Triggers a dangerous heart rhythm problem.
Bella, how are you feeling here this morning?
Quite the road you've had over the past
nine years, right? Yeah, I'm great.
Tell us a little bit more about
your condition and and what it's
been like to to live with this,
how you've been able to,
you know, kind of fight back.
Because I was diagnosed so young,
I haven't known much different,
but the most important thing
is to advocate for yourself.
No one else knows what's going on except me.
And I understand Rachel.
Bella School has has really
helped out with this,
becoming the first accredited
heartsafe school in California.
Could you tell us a little
bit about that and your
efforts involved with that?
Yes, Bella's elementary
school Old Town Academy.
We worked very hard to have them become
a heart safe school and that involved
the SADS Foundation really helped us
with putting together that program,
the children and the staff all
get trained annually for CPR.
1080P awareness and this providing
a safe environment for your
for your family is cool,
so the more people that know how
to do CPR and how to use an AED,
the safer everyone will be
look. This may seem like super unique but
one of our beloved reporters Chris grow his.
His brother is is going through this and
has lived with this through his life.
So you know there this does happen
to a lot of people out there doctor
what do you want our viewers to know?
If they should see something,
if they should be concerned,
what kind of warning signs they'd
be on the lookout for?
Yeah, I think there there are
two things as Rachel is saying,
there's prevention and early diagnosis
and then there's effective rescue
treatment and that's CPR and AED's.
We are lucky in California that
California is one of the maybe 20 states
in the US that has an 80D requirement,
and so if people are CPR trained
and if you know where the AED is
in your school or other facilities,
if you know where it is and have
some knowledge of how to use one,
they're very, very easy to use.
That would be extremely helpful.
Rachel valley. You guys have been
helping out in that too, right?
The the AED the CPR training?
There's events that are going
on where people can learn.
How to do this? Right?
Tell us a little bit about
your involvement with that.
You did this weekend on Saturday we did
a CPR training for our neighborhood.
We're also working with Redis
and Project Adam to also
get her high school to be a heart
safe school. Our Lady of peace.
So just spreading awareness is key
and Rachel. Whether your kid has
saids or someone you know or not,
these are just good things to know, right?
How do you, how to work an AED?
How to do CPR? But you could.
You could really save a life
knowing these these. Life skills.
Absolutely. I mean, it's it's a
very simple skill to learn it.
It's not. It's not easy.
It's it's hard work doing CPR,
but it's an easy skill to learn and
every minute makes a difference.
So you can simply learn those basic skills.
You can make a difference in someones life.
Bella give us your message to
everyone watching right now
about Sad's living with it.
How to combat it?
We love seeing your smile
here this morning.
How can we keep those those
families and their smiles coming?
Uhm? I don't know, just like advocate
for yourself and know what's going on.
That's right, advocation is is a big
part of this education too right?
Doctor Perry is is is a big key in this.
That's right,
and there there are two takeaways.
As we've mentioned,
one is the website stopsadz.org.
That's the Sads Foundation website
and then the other is to look up
under Rady Children's for the project.
Adam involvement that's related
to the AED use that
we've been talking about.
Super important
and Rachel. Any other events you guys have
coming up that we can tell people about?
Oh, nothing currently in the books,
but annually we are out there trying to
advocate for heart safety definitely
and working with Project Adam,
seeing you guys around at the
events then alright Doctor Perry,
Rachel and Bella. Thanks so much
for joining us here this morning.
Such an important message to get out there,
especially given a heart
health month here in February.
As you're wrapping up.
Thanks so much for your time.
Thank you. Thanks Eric alright.