Kevin Major of Westfield was probably doing what many teenagers do without thinking much of it on that fateful day — July 11, 2011.
Enjoying the summer, his mantra was, “Live every day, laugh every moment, love beyond words.”
The 19-year-old Major was swimming on a pontoon boat with a group of friends at Congamond Lakes Middle Pond in Southwick when, suddenly, he disappeared in the water. After unsuccessful search-and-rescue efforts, Major turned up a drowning victim the next morning.
It was later discovered that Major died from sudden cardiac arrest and drowning.
No one could have predicted what happened to Major that day. The 2010 graduate of Westfield’s St. Mary High School played a number of sports, including baseball, lacrosse and golf, but his greatest passion was hockey, which he began playing at the age of 3 and continued to play competitively until his passing. He was a fit 19-year-old with no apparent health issues.
Unfortunately, unbeknownst to his mother or anyone else, Major suffered from a condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), which leads to an enlarged heart. There is no cause for the condition, but according to the Center for Disease Control, 5,000 young people ages 15 through 34 die annually from sudden cardiac arrest, and the leading cause of death is HCM.
“Like many others who have sudden cardiac arrest, his first incident was his last,” said Major’s mother, Susan Canning.
That’s what makes HCM so frightening. Without a screening, there is no way to diagnose it. And according to the American Heart Association, about one out of every 500 people has it, affecting men and women equally.
No parent should ever have to bury a child, and Canning did not want other parents to suffer the same trauma she went through. With that in mind, and in order to honor her late son, Canning started KEVS Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization. The goal is to educate and help prevent Sudden Cardiac Arrest in children and young adults. The foundation provides free youth heart screenings and provides access to defibrillators.
On March 19, the KEVS Foundation will be at Greenfield High School to provide free screenings to any youth athletes ages 13 through 20.
This is the 10th screening done by the foundation, which has been to Westfield, Granby, Northampton and Holyoke, among others, but is making its first trip to Franklin County. Part of the reason the foundation chose Greenfield is due to a crisis that unfolded at Amelia Park Arena in Westfield on Nov. 21, when off-duty Greenfield Police officer Marcus Paulin was watching his son’s hockey game. Another parent suddenly collapsed from life-threatening heart arrhythmia and Paulin wound up giving the person CPR and then used a defibrillator to restore the person’s heart rhythm. The defibrillator used by Paulin just happened to be the first one ever given away by KEVS Foundation, because the rink was Kevin Major’s home during his youth and high school playing days.
“The first AED we donated was to Amelia Park Arena and that helped save a life that day,” Canning said.
The event runs from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. and is open to students in any town, not just Greenfield. Anyone interested in signing up their student-athlete is encouraged to do so but must preregister through the foundation’s website at kevsfoundation.com, to secure a timeslot that day. At the top of the site’s home page is a tab for “Events and News,” where the March 19 screening is included.
According to Canning, they are looking to screen 100 kids free of a charge that day. They do ask for a donation, which goes directly toward purchasing the portable defibrillator, which Greenfield High School will be able to use. According to GHS principal Donna Woodcock, the new school does have defibrillators but nothing portable. The donated one will be especially key for use on the new back athletic fields and track because, unlike football games, there is not a paramedic on hand for many of the events that take place there. Canning said that having an AED on hand can drastically increase the chance for survival by someone in cardiac arrest.
“Statistically, when an AED is brought onto the site where someone is in cardiac arrest, there is a 90 percent chance of survival,” she explained. “There are some schools that do not have an AED, but we’ve been working with the Statehouse to require all schools to have one. It just makes sense.”
The screening, which must be attended by a parent of the child, consists of a an education area, where people learn to perform hands-only CPR, and also how to use an AED, as well as learning symptoms and signs of sudden cardiac arrest. A nutritionist will also be on hand. Kids then have their height, weight and blood pressure taken before they go into one of four tents (makeshift exam rooms), where they will have an EKG performed. Finally, the results of everything are examined by volunteers from the medical community, including Dr. Michael Willers, a western Massachusetts pediatric cardiologist. If nothing is found, the family will be given the results under advisement to place them in their child’s permanent medical records. If something does show up, an echocardiogram will be performed, which gets a clearer picture than the EKG, according to Canning.
In the past nine screenings, the foundation has found abnormal readings in 5 to 8 percent of the students. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything major. Some are able to be diagnosed on the spot and others are recommended to have further testing. If a child does need a follow-up, Dr. Willers will call the child’s pediatrician. The whole thing takes about 30-45 minutes, and could help save a life.”
“If Kevin was diagnosed, he could have survived on Beta blockers,” Canning said. “He may not have been able to play sports, but he would have been alive. It’s a $500 to $800 test that you get for free. Why would you not have your child tested?”
For more questions, contact the organization at kevsfoundation@gmail.com.
It was a pretty disappointing week for our local basketball teams and we now enter Week 2 of the various high school hoop tournaments with no teams to cover.
This is my 10th winter covering high school basketball and never have I missed Curry Hicks Cage in Amherst, where semifinals and finals are held. Not so this year.
I began working my way back through the years and could not find the last year when neither a local boys’ nor girls’ team made the Cage. The last time no girls’ team made it was just two years ago (2013-14), while you have to go back a bit further to find the last time no local boys’ team made it (2002-03). Unfortunately, our records are not the quickest to research, and it was difficult to find a season in which neither a boys’ or girls’ team made it.
This year’s local teams struggled in the tourney, finishing 4-12, with two of those wins coming in games featuring two locals. It was especially brutal when our locals matched up against teams from the Berkshires, against whom Franklin County went an abysmal 0-7.
And just like that, the winter season is over with. Good thing it’s supposed to be 70 degrees this week. We need the spring season to get here fast.
Jason Butynski is a Greenfield native and Recorder sportswriter. His email address is jbutynski@recorder.com. Like him on Facebook and leave your feedback at www.facebook.com/jaybutynski.