OLIVIA'S HEART PROJECT

SCA is a serious health risk for children and young adults, not only older adults as is the common perception. Each year in the United States, up to 10,000 seemingly healthy youth suffer fatal or severely debilitating consequences due to an undetected heart condition. Routine school physicals include evaluation of weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, vision, hearing, scoliosis, diabetes and anemia. But what about the heart, the most vital organ in the human body? A simple EKG is generally not included in the physical exam for a child who appears active and healthy.

Heart screenings with an electrocardiogram (EKG) and Echocardiogram machine can detect 60% of risk factors for sudden cardiac arrest in young people.

Olivia's Project intends to conduct community screenings once or twice a year, depending on funding, for students and young adults, age 12–18 and offered at no cost. Statistics show that 8 out of 1,000 live births each year have a heart defect, usually undetected.

Our mission is to provide the community with the knowledge about the issues, obstacles, and benefits of SCA prevention, resuscitation and early treatment in children and young adults through Community Heart Screenings, Education and increased accessibility to life saving AEDs.

Through partnerships and contributions of time, talent and resources that we will be able to provide these awareness events and preventative services. While we hope that a day will come when heart screenings by EKG are a routine part of a student's physical, they currently are not, which results in 5,000 to 7,000 lost youth lives every year in the United States.

Kern County alone has lost 5 kids since 2004, that we are aware of, to Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA), a syndrome that happens without warning, proving fatal in 92% of cases if not treated within minutes. Cardiac screenings can identify the heart abnormalities that lead to SCA, but heart screenings are not a part of the annual well child or sports pre-participation
exams.

Olivia's Heart Project will seek to work pediatric cardiologists, clinics and hospitals in Bakersfield/Kern County. Continue to have two fundraisers per year. Continue to apply for grants.

Our mission is to provide the community with the knowledge about the issues, obstacles, and benefits of SCA prevention, resuscitation and early treatment in children and young adults through Community Heart Screenings, Education and increased accessibility to life saving AEDs.

Cardiac screenings can identify the heart abnormalities that lead to SCA, but heart screenings are not a part of the annual well child or sports pre-participation exams.

In the hope of preventing a tragedy that could be a heartbeat away, Olivia's Heart Project has partnered with Central
Cardiology Medical Clinic and Bakersfield Heart Hospital to offer free cardiac screenings to teens and young adults.

Olivia's Heart Project is committed to the development of strong collaborative partnerships to ensure the success of the project. Active collaborative partners include:

American Heart Association
• Donates CPR Anytime Kits for families
• Donates CPR In-School Training Kits
• Donates on-line CPR training for school personnel

Medical Education Angels
• Provided CPR to all schools in the Kern County

Dr. Sarjeet Singh, Central Cardiology
• Provides consultation services for programs
• Volunteer medical services

Bakersfield Heart Hospital
• Underwriter Community Heart Screening

Waterman Foundation (Bakersfield Downtown Rotary)
• $8,970.00 grant for the purchase of AED units

AT&T
• $1,000.00 community grant

Plains LPG Services L.P.
• $17,940 donation for the placement of 13 AED units

On Saturday, October 10, 2015, we partnered with Bakersfield Heart Hospital and Central Cardiology Medical Clinic (CCMC) to offer our first FREE Community Heart Screening to youth ages 12-24. We were able to screen a total of 58 kids and found some astonishing results.

A total of 11 showed abnormalities on their EKG so Echocardiograms were also performed. The results showed that 9 of the kids had significant heart defects that put them at risk for Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA). Only because we were able to offer these screenings were these parents and kids able to act early enough to prevent a potentially fatal result.

We are grateful to have been able to offer this service to our community. We look forward to a long future of providing many more of these screenings to our local youth. Through heart screening and awareness, it is our hope that we can prevent SCA in our children giving them longer, healthier lives.

While early diagnosis and treatment can significantly reduce the risk of SCA, it doesn't eliminate the possibility all together. That is why we have been working to place Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in all of our Kern County Middle Schools. Several of our schools are ready to move forward with AED programs but lack the funding necessary to do so. To fulfill the needs of these schools, we need to place 26 AEDs in order to make these schools Heart Safe.

Our second Free Heart Screening was held at Bakersfield Heart Hospital, Saturday, March 5, 2016. We screened 93 kids and found 10 who had undiagnosed heart conditions and require follow up care.

The following heart conditions were found:
•3 Bradycardia
•1 Early Repolarization Syndrome
•2 Tachycardia
•1 Long QT
•1 Syncope/Seizures
•1 Left Ventricular Hypertrophy
•1 Right Ventricular Hypertrophy

We had 30+ community volunteers who participated in this every important screening! Everyone came together because our goal is to keep kids alive and not have parents go through the pain of losing a child.

Thank you to the Cardiologists from Children's Hospital Los Angeles who travelled to Bakersfield to screen our kids. You have made a difference in the lives of 10 families.

We are grateful to have been able to offer this service to our community. Through heart screening and awareness, it is our hope that we can prevent SCA in our children giving them longer, healthier lives.

While early diagnosis and treatment can significantly reduce the risk of SCA, it doesn't eliminate the possibility all together. That is why we have been working to place Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) in all of our Kern County Middle Schools. Several of our schools are ready to move forward with AED programs but lack the funding necessary to do so.

We've had two heart screenings, with astonishing results. We have placed a total of 149 AEDs in local schools but many schools are still in need of AED/CPR training.