“It’s the first thing you think of when you hear about a kid passing out and having an arrest,” Dr. Silvestre Duran, medical director of pediatric cardiology at Corewell Health in Royal Oak, Michigan, tells TODAY.com. He didn't treat Bowerson but is familiar with his case.
“It was a lot worse than usual,” he recalls. “It was when I got this chest pain that I was like, ‘Maybe this isn’t normal.’” The inherited condition happens when abnormal genes cause the heart muscle to become thicker than normal, which can reduce blood flow in and out of the heart, according to theIn many young adults, the first symptom is a sudden collapse and possible death, theOthers, like Bowerson, have warning signs such as chest pain with physical exertion, shortness of breath that’s out of proportion with the amount of exercise a person is doing or fainting episodes.
He feels fine, but can no longer wrestle, play contact sports or do strenuous weight lifting. The limits are meant to protect his heart and implanted defibrillator. But heart-specific screening is not recommended by the AHA for every single pediatric patient, Duran notes.to detect potential heart problems. They include: