An Overland Park business is helping teen athletes discover heart problems that often go unnoticed.
Grace Lovett was just 13 years old when her mom decided to have her screened for a heart problem.
The screening was done by a mobile company designed to screen teen athletes for heart problems that often go unnoticed in regular physicals.
"They found a hole the size of a half-dollar in my heart," said Lovett.
Lovett underwent more testing and then open heart surgery to close the hole.
Six weeks later and she was back on the volleyball court with her teammates.
"This saved my life," Lovett said.
The company that does the testing is called Athlete Testing Solutions, and its run by Eric Schroeder.
"We are finding about 8 percent of the students have heart defects," said Schroeder, who started the company three years ago. "Most of the children we test are fine, but a growing number of kids have heart defects."
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Richard Sharp can be reached at richard.sharp@kshb.com.
