By Rosemary Daniels | Correspondent

St. John Vianney High School, Holmdel, recently held cardiac screenings that provided the community with the chance to receive free preventive care.

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The motivation behind the screenings, however, goes far beyond the health benefits they could yield.

The inspiration came from the story of Nicole Trott, a 2011 graduate of the Holmdel school who spent her time there active in varsity cheerleading and as part of the track team. At the age of 18, she lost her life to Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) due to an undetected congenital heart defect.

Nicole, also a competitive gymnast, had been accepted into the pre-veterinary program in Rutgers University for the fall of 2011. It was during a gymnastics event three days after her graduation from St. John Vianney that she experienced SCA. She was taken to a nearby hospital, where she lapsed into a coma and died four days later.

Nicole had been an extremely healthy teenager, who had annual sports physicals and received all necessary preventive care during her life. During those exams, there had been no indication of a potentially deadly cardiac abnormality.

Even though they were devastated at the tragic loss of their daughter, Dave and Pat Trott joined with Nicole’s friends at JK Gymnastics, who had decided they wanted to do something to honor Nicole.

Dave Trott said, “Of course, our first goal was to start a scholarship, which we did. But we were so frustrated over the fact that this happened to our supposedly healthy daughter. What’s the purpose of these sports physicals if she was walking around with a time bomb in her chest?”

Their first thought was to purchase AEDs (automatic external defibrillators), since there had been no AED on site at the time of Nicole’s SCA. But in a positive turn of events, a New Jersey state law was implemented in September, 2014, officially requiring AEDs to be on-site for all youth athletic events.

They next turned their efforts to cardiac screenings. Nicole had had a congenital heart defect, which could have been corrected surgically, had it been picked up on a routine cardiac screening.

Pat commented, “We figured if we could get a doctor to work with us and do cardiac screenings, it would be wonderful. We truly don’t want other families to go through what we went though.”

The Trotts approached SJV, and were greeted with a very positive response. In the summer of 2013, they held an event where over 70 student athletes were screened at the school. For this year’s event, Pat asked Dr. Mitchel Alpert of Alpert, Zales & Castro Pediatric Cardiology if His practice would help with the on-site screenings.

Alpert said, “Once Mrs. Trott explained what had happened with Nicole, of course we wanted to be involved.”

According to an American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement, the Centers for Disease Control  and Prevention estimate approximately 2,000 deaths of patients 25 years and younger are attributable to SCA. The incidence of SCA is believed to be increased by athletic participation.

Alpert Zales & Castro Cardiology has been in Monmouth County since 1987, and is associated with both Meridian Health, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. On Jan. 17, all five doctors came to volunteer their time, and brought their eight staff members to assist with the screenings.

Dr. Vincent Zales described their two agendas: “First, we want to come to schools and perform EKGs to assess heart rhythms. They give us a clue as to any abnormalities. We’d also like to see the surfers and the skiers, who may not consider themselves team athletes. Second, since we can’t screen everybody, we want to create a community of life savers. We want to teach them CPR and how to work with an AED. We know that more lives will be saved with an AED, than with preventive care.”

According to Rich Lamberson, athletic director for SJV, more than 90 athletes were screened that day. Also, Meridian Health Community Outreach sent representative Noreen Schifano to demonstrate how an actual AED works, as well as the basics of CPR. Schifano noted that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno recently signed a bill requiring all high school students pass a CPR class prior to graduating. The law became effective starting with freshmen entering high school this year. According to Lamberson, St. John Vianney already includes CPR as part of their curricula.

Sophomore football player Matthew DiGennaro and junior soccer player Ben Acton-Bond came to the screening because they each had a family history of heart issues. DiGennaro’s grandmother, Dorothy Minlionica, revealed that her son had had a heart attack at the age of 38 and therefore she is making sure all three of her grandsons get checked. Both boys indicated that they were not nervous about coming for the test, but each was glad when they heard their screening was clear.

The Trotts want to continue these cardiac screenings, and to award scholarships in Nicole’s name. One scholarship will be awarded annually to a qualifying SJV student, and a second will be awarded at another school. Fundraisers are held throughout the year.

For more information about the Nicole’s Heart Foundation, visit www.nicolesheart.com.