|
Bring in test for
heart conditions
Lucinda Flannery has
spoken of her relief after tests revealed she and her children are free of
the heart condition that is thought to have claimed her brothers life.
Keen runner Justin Meek
was only 33 when he went to bed on May 20, 2001, and died in his sleep.
Doctors believe he died from long QT syndrome,
one of a number of heart conditions when can cause seemingly healthy
adults to die without warning.
Lucinda 39, who lives in
Puckrup, near Tewkesbury, was devastated by the sudden loss of her
brother. She said: “My brother
was very fit and well. He
kept himself active and there was nothing wrong with him.
“It was just a normal
Saturday night but his wife woke upon Sunday morning to find him lying
dead next to her.
“There’s not history
of sudden deaths in our family and it was a blot out of the blue.
“We were very close.
He was a real family man, a hands on dad to Bryony and a great
brother to me, especially when my ex-husband and I parted company.”
The condition is thought
to be hereditary which meant Lucinda and her two boys Kieran, seven, and
Nathan, nine, had to face an agonising wait to see if they were at risk.
She said: “Both my
sister-in-law and I had to push hard to get myself and our children
screened.
“Because Justin died in
his sleep I obviously kept checking the boys during the night.
“I didn’t stop them
doing normal sport because I wanted them to live as normal life as
possible.
“At the time I was
living on my own so I used to worry what they’d do if I died suddenly in
the night. It was such a
relief to get the all clear.”
The delight that her
young family are free from the condition is marred by the fact Lucinda is
still waiting to discover if her niece Bryony is safe. At
five years old, she is too young to be given the all clear.
Lucinda is now fighting
to get screening for others. She
is backing a campaign by the national charity Cardiac Risk in the Young
which ultimately wants all school children to be screened when they have
their BCG vaccination. CRY which
was founded in May 1995, offers advice on Sudden Cardiac Death and Sudden
Death Syndrome.
Every week four to eight
apparently fit and healthy young people die in the UK from undiagnosed
heart conditions.
Lucinda said: “All
children should be screened. If
it is detected it can be controlled by drugs and you can do something
about it.
“Other families would
have to say goodbye to relatives if heart conditions were detected earlier
because you can get treatment.
“If Justin had known he
could have taken a tablet once a day and he might still be alive and well
today.”
An estimated 100
apparently healthy young people die every year from sudden adult cardiac
death syndrome.
In March this year the
government announced it was setting up a task force to look into the
problem. This was welcomed by
the family of Alexander Edwards. He
was only 12 when he died less than a week after collapsing during a
cricket match for Cheltenham College Junior School in 1997.
|
