Heart Health and Our Youth

McDonough District Hospital will host a community education program, “Understanding the Heart of Our Youth” on Tuesday, March 30 from 6:00 – 7:30 PM at the Spoon River College Community Outreach Center, 2500 East Jackson Street, Macomb.

David Chan, MD, Pediatric Cardiologist, will be the featured speaker for the evening. Dr. Chan is the Medical Director of the Congenital Heart Center at Children’s Hospital of Illinois in Peoria. Dr. Chan is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and Pediatric Cardiology. He has 17 years of experience and his clinical areas of interest include syncope (fainting) and heart rhythm disorders in children, interventional procedures for the treatment of abnormal heart rhythm, and pacemaker/internal defibrillator implantation management.

At the program, Dr. Chan will explain sudden cardiac death in the athlete and common rhythm disturbances in the pediatric population. Sudden death has been defined as "an abrupt unexpected death of cardiovascular cause, in which the loss of consciousness occurs within 1 to 12 hours of onset of symptoms." Sudden death in young competitive athletes is highly visible and receives a lot of media coverage. Increasing awareness about this condition could prevent more deaths from occurring.

Dr. Chan will cover the following topics at the program:

• Typical symptoms that are predictors for sudden death
• Appropriate diagnostic testing for patients with syncope
• Appropriate level of pre-participation screening (ie. sports physical exam)

This program is co-sponsored by McDonough District Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Illinois, and OSF Saint Francis Heart Hospital. The program is free and open to the public and is recommended especially for parents, teachers, coaches, and athletes.

For more information, please contact MDH Outreach Services at 309-836-1584.