SAN ANTONIO — August Koontz was an active athlete who died in his sleep at the age of 18 due to sudden cardiac arrest. Three years later, his parents founded August Heart, an organization that offers free heart screenings to teenagers in San Antonio. "I was with him the night before he passed away," said his mother Dore Koontz. She said her son was in perfect health and added, "He loved sports, played football, basketball, very very active, worked out all the time, took very good care of himself."



August died from a heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which has been reported to occur in as many as 1 in 500 people. That is when the bottom chambers of the heart, or the ventricles, are too thick, making it harder for the heart to pump blood. If it is severe enough, the condition can cause heart failure resulting in sudden death.



"People always say something good comes out of everything bad, and you don't really understand that at the time, but this is a really great thing and it really has saved a lot of lives," said Koontz.



One of those lives was Jake Stewart. He was entering high school at the time he was screened. Stewart said, "As it got toward the end, the doctor started treating me different, and I started to get a little nervous, and that's when I found out I had WPW. That stands for Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. They had it ablated." He was back on the field in 30 days, went to Clark High School, succeeded as quarterback, graduated, and now plays at Trinity.



This weekend, the screenings are being offered for teenagers ages 14 to 18. Each teenager should wear loose fitting clothing. A parental waiver must be signed while registering. The screening includes an electrocardiogram and if necessary an echocardiogram. Each screening is free but a $25 donation is optional to help offset the cost to screen each student.



The screenings take place starting at 8:30 a.m. on February 23 at the Piper-Bass Student Center on 12002 Jones-Maltzberger Road. To register just go to Augustheart.org.



