St. Vincent's Heartbeat: Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Children

Many people think only adults can suffer from SCA, but children, teens and even babies can die from it.

The good news is, most of these conditions are detectable and treatable if caught early.

Darren and Phyllis Sudman had the perfect family life, but it all came to a halt when their 3 month old son, Simon, was found dead in his crib.

The Sudman's pediatrician thought it was something more than sudden infant death syndrome and recommended the Sudmans get tested.

What they found was shocking. Phyllis was diagnosed with a rare heart problem.

While she had no symptoms, it was hereditary and passed to Simon. Had he been screen as a newborn, he could have been saved.

In honor of their son, the Sudmans started Simon's Fund, an organization that provides free heart screenings to any child in the Philadelphia area.

Doctors say those tests are important because sudden cardiac arrest is the number one killer of student athletes and is responsible for up to 15% of all sudden infant deaths.

"Probably 20% of the children we see in the newborn period will have some irregularity of the heart," says Dr. Steven Shapiro.

Simon's Fund has provided screenings for more than 5,500 children. 1% of those children had some sort of defect.

Dr. Shapiro says, "Every time we do a screening we are potentially preventing the devastation from happening again and again."