ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – Ashlen Tarzwell didn’t understand why her mother was insistent that she have an ECG screening of her heart. The 14-year-old is not planning to play a sport when she starts ninth grade at Bartram Trail High School next week.
Under Florida law, the Second Chance Act, all rising ninth graders who intend to play a sport in school are required to have an ECG screening of their heart starting this school year.
The test can detect undiagnosed heart conditions that can cause sudden cardiac arrest.
Ashlen’s twin sister, Skyler, will be playing softball at Bartram and was required to take the test to play. Their mother took both girls to an event offered by Who We Play For, which offers free ECG screenings to Florida students.
“She asked me, ‘Why do I have to do it?’” explained Ashlen’s mom, Andrea Bird. “I felt kind of a nudge in my side, like, ‘Let’s just do it, just in case.’”
She credits that “nudge,” a feeling in her gut, as a decision that saved her daughter’s life. Days after her daughters underwent the heart screening, her phone rang.
Ashlen’s ECG test revealed she had an undiagnosed heart condition known as Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, which can cause the heart to beat out of rhythm and trigger sudden cardiac arrest.
“Fourteen years of living a healthy life, of undergoing normal physicals, participating in activities, going to overnight camp, running, swimming, playing with friends like nothing was wrong,” she explained about her seemingly perfectly healthy teenagers. “And suddenly we were facing potentially a life-threatening condition.”
Ashlen required heart surgery, a terrifying reality for the 14-year-old.
“I was just worried that something bad was going to happen during the procedure,” she said.
Doctors performed an ablation on her heart, which prevents it from skipping out of its normal rhythm.
Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is not as rare in young people as you might think. It is the leading cause of death on school campuses.
According to Who We Play For, an organization created to eliminate preventable SCA in young people, 96% of standard youth wellness checkups miss deadly heart conditions.
An ECG, which is a painless screening of the heart, is considered the most effective tool to identify youth at risk for SCA, yet the test is not part of a standard wellness visit performed at a pediatrician’s office.
There are often no symptoms; in fact, according to Who We Play For, sudden cardiac arrest is the first symptom for 80% of those who collapse, and 1 in 300 youth has a detectable and potentially life- threatening heart condition that has not been diagnosed.
Who We Play For was created by friends of Rafe Maccarone, who died in 2007 after collapsing on the field warming up for soccer practice at his school in Cocoa Beach.
After his death, doctors discovered he had Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, even though his family says he had no symptoms until he collapsed.
Who We Play For has worked for years with state legislators to require ECG tests of student-athletes.
The Second Chance Act is named in honor of Chance Gainer, who collapsed and died of sudden cardiac arrest during a football game in Port St. Lucie in 2024.
Ashlen Tarzwell can now find comfort knowing her heart condition has been corrected.
“I can finally be a child again,” she said, “because of that ECG, I’m still alive to this day.”
Her mother’s message now to any parent who will listen: Get your child screened because “you just never truly know.”
You can find an ECG screening event near you by clicking here.