On Dec. 23 2017, 14-year-old Fort Myers athlete Zachary Syska was running with friends when he went into sudden cardiac arrest and his heart stopped. A youth running club coach immediately began to administer CPR and when Fort Myers firefighters arrived at the scene, they were able to revive Syska with a defibrillator.
As sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death of student athletes, we’ll explore when and how kids should get cardiac screenings with Lee Health pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Eric Eason. We’ll also hear directly from Zachary and his mother Stephanie Syska, who herself is an emergency room nurse and director of Emergency Services at Lee Health’s HealthPark Medical Center.