7 Health Edge Heart Check catches teen's heart problem

(WXYZ) - At 14-years-old, Darius Loving of Belleville takes his school work seriously.

He studies hard.

But Darius also plays hard.  He is a three-sport athlete in high school who started playing competitive baseball at just six-years-old.  

Now a freshman at Belleville High School, this year Darius planned on going out for football, basketball and baseball.

Strikingly handsome, and the picture of vibrant health, Darius has never shown any signs of having any kind of heart trouble.

But still, just to be safe, this past October Darius’s mother Ta’I took her son to the 7 Health Edge Heart Check held in Detroit at the Bowe Family YMCA. 

What made her do it?

”A mother’s intuition, that’s it.  I know my boy is an athlete who always plays hard and I didn’t want to take the chance that there could be a problem,” Ta’I says

Created in 2007, by myself and a special team of heart doctors at the Beaumont Health System, the 7 Health Edge Heart Check puts hundreds of high school athletes all over Michigan through a battery of in-depth heart tests designed to find hidden heart abnormalities.

It was during those tests that we discovered that Darius has one of the most serious hidden heart conditions you can have, what’s called Hypertrophic Cardio Myopathy. 

It’s a disease that has killed teenage athletes all over the country for years and years.

Knowing how hard he plays, Darius knows what could have happened had he not gone thru our testing.

“I could have died, I could be dead now for sure.   I’m just glad I came to get my heart tested.  I’m very glad,” Darius says

Now, Darius is on a special drug regimen to keep his heart from beating too fast.

He has been ordered to give up football and basketball, but doctors say with a special wrist-mounted heart monitor Darius will be allowed to play varsity high school baseball.

As for Ta’I, she is forever grateful  for our testing.

“The worst could have happened.  We could have lost our son.  You saved his life, you and the 7 Health Edge Heart Check saved Darius’s life,” Ta’I says , “Thank God.”

The next 7 Health Edge Heart Check will be held this Saturday, January 21, 2012 at Clarkston High School.

The testing begins at 9:00 am and ends at 4:00 pm. 

To attend, you must register your high school, athlete at 1-800-328-8542. You can also register online at heart.beaumont.edu/upcoming-student-heart-screenings .