This year, as the sun rises on the 25th Anniversary of the SADS Foundation, we celebrate the privilege to have served families with SADS conditions since 1992. As we commemorate this milestone, our services with the partnership of our volunteer committees will continue to support and advance the current and yet-to-be-determined needs of the SADS community. Throughout

2017, The SADS Foundation will make key announcements to include the following:

Significant Program Advancements
Program directors will share changes or additions in our programs including Prevention & Awareness, Patient & Family Support, Medical Education, and Research & Advocacy as we continue making a difference saving the lives and supporting the families of children and adults who are genetically predisposed to sudden death due to heart rhythm abnormalities

25th Anniversary Take Steps to Stops SADS Campaigns
We ask you to join in this year's monthly campaigns to support the SADS Foundation achieve our mission. Each month, we will either renew a long-established campaign or reveal a new campaign as we take a large collective step towards fulfilling the goals and the objectives of the next 25 years.  And just for fun, be watching for random surprises to be announced beginning with a Fun February Revival.

Take Steps to Stop SADS Awareness Activities
Help us to spread awareness about SADS conditions throughout the year as we offer an awareness activity every other month for you to share in your community. The first activity which is ready for the Heart Month of February is the SADS Foundation Red Kit for families to share at all the places they live, work and play. To find out more, read the Red Kit article below.

If you would like to sign up to be a SADS volunteer to participate in these bimonthly campaigns, we will send you a Take Steps to Stop SADS T-Shirt and put you on a mailing list to automatically receive any awareness materials throughout the year. Please contact Awareness and Outreach Coordinator Chelsey at 801-272-3023 or [email protected] for further information.

Marlene Rios and Cassio Huerta have a beautiful family. Together they have three kids ages 3 to 10, but last year they had a bombshell dropped on them.Their youngest was diagnosed with a rare form of Long QT Syndrome. Shortly after their then 2 year old's diagnoses, two other family members were diagnosed with heart conditions as well.

Lynn Johnson, Director of Family Support with the Sudden arrhythmia Death Syndrome Foundation said Long QT Syndrome is detected in 1 in every 2000 live births, and it can be genetic.

 

"Each parent has a fifty-fifty chance of passing it down to every child, and a brother and sister have a fifty-fifty chance of sharing the gene. So if one family member is identified we want to check everyone in the family," explains Johnson.

Click here for full article.

Michaela Gagne Hetzler, school adjustment counselor at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School in Fall River, Massachusetts, has been a long-time advocate of the new Massachusetts bill, which will require all schools to have AEDs. "It's pretty awesome," Hetzler said. "Quite simply, it saves lives."

Michaela was diagnosed with LQTS at age 15, and after her plans for Division I soccer were derailed, she entered the Miss America pageant, competing as Miss Massachusetts 2006. As far as she knows, she is the first Miss America contestant to compete with an ICD.

Gov. Charlie Baker was scheduled to sign the bill last Friday. The bill will require every school in Massachusetts to have lifesaving automatic external defibrillators on hand by July 2018.  Schools that cannot afford a defibrillator can apply for a hardship waiver and receive help with the purchase, roughly $800 to $1,000 per unit.
According to the AHA, a child has a sudden cardiac arrest every three days in the United States. About 20 percent of the U.S. population is at a school on any given day, whether for work, classes, professional or parent visits, plays, voting, or other programs.

Click here for full article. 

Did you know that the SADS Foundation has a unique AmazonSmile link that makes it easier for you to find the SADS Foundation and support us? Just click here to be taken directly to smile.amazon.com and be asked if you want to support the SADS Foundation.
Once you have selected the SADS Foundation, we will receive 0.5% of the price of all your eligible smile.amazon.com purchases.And remember, please use www.smile.amazon.com Only purchases made at smile.amazon.com are eligible for donations.

Be sure to share our unique link on your website, in email, and on social media.

Please contact Jan at 801-272-3023 or [email protected], if you have any questions. 

The safe use of the CredibleMeds® lists of medications requires that users have the most up-to-date lists of drugs.  Therefore, we are very pleased to announce a new tool to help you assess the safety of medications:   

 

CredibleMedsMobile App is now available free! You can access by clicking one of the following versions:
 


The App is synced to the CredibleMeds drugs lists and is therefore always an up-to-date resource for you to search for drugs of interest.  We hope you will find the App to be of value and we seek your feedback for ways they might be improved to better serve your needs.

We also want to announce that the following drugs that have been added to the drugs lists at this time: Olanzapine (moved), Terlipressin, Bendamustine, Melperone, Romidepsin and Droxidopa. 

The mission of GotAED.org begun by the founder of Simon's Fund Darren Sudman is to protect children from sudden cardiac death by making it possible, practical and affordable for youth-related facilities to acquire an AED device.

GotAED brings generous people together with youth facilities in need of AED devices. The process is simple. A facility starts a campaign and shares its story. The campaign goal is equal to the cost of one AED device and wall cabinet. This price has been negotiated by GotAED with licensed AED distributors. The public finds a campaign and makes a donation. Once the campaign goal is achieved, GotAED uses the funds to purchase the AED and cabinet. The AED distributor ships the AED device and cabinet to the facility. Now, you've got AED! To find out more, click here.