This Class Might Save Your Child’s Life
Dr. Brian Coppess
Associate Principal, Urbandale High School
Urbandale High School senior Tricia Richards hadn’t felt right for several
years. She slept a lot, went to bed very early in the evening when she could, and had
trouble waking up and pulling herself out of bed each morning. She literally felt
exhausted most of her waking hours. The doctors and specialists she and her family
visited could not provide a solution for the cause of her fatigue. Trish was told again
and again, it’s not life threatening, but at this point we don’t have a diagnosis for
you. Eventually it was an innovative activity in her high school PE class that
provided the clue that would lead doctors to a diagnosis that would have a profound
effect on Trish’s health.
Sam Anderson, Mike Moreno, Elizabeth Baethke, and Jeremy Heinen are the
Physical Education (PE) teachers at Urbandale High School, and they strive to stay
abreast of 21st Century techniques and technology. One product from the recent
surge of popularity of personal fitness has been the emergence of the electronic
heart monitor as a training device. Students that came from Urbandale Middle
School had experienced monitors in the past. The High School teachers decided to
give the strategy a try and the Richards family is very thankful they did.
When Tricia used a heart monitor in PE class the first time, she was simply
meeting her teacher’s expectations as she called out a resting heart rate of around
130 beats per minute, nearly twice as high as other students in the class. Initially
instructor Jeremy Heinen believed something was wrong with the device so he had
her switch equipment. The second monitor confirmed the high rate. However,
Tricia didn’t respond like she was under duress so she continued the activity and
exercised with the other students. When the workout increased, her heart rate
reached 195 beats per minute; at this point Mr. Heinen pulled her from the group
and told her, “That’s pretty high. I’m sure everything’s ok, but just sit out, rest, and
relax.”
Tricia’s mother, Susan Richards, said that Mr. Heinen’s next steps were vital
for a cardiologist finally diagnosing the cause of Tricia’s health problems.
Immediately following class, Mr. Heinen sent Trish to visit the school nurse, Brenda
Ness. Trish credits Mrs. Ness with assuring her that she would be ok, but that it was
important to follow up with doctors on what was learned through the heart monitor
activity in PE. Both Mrs. Ness and Mr. Heinen followed up with phone calls to
Tricia’s parents. The Richards scheduled an appointment with a cardiologist but
couldn’t get in for a couple of weeks; it was learned, though, that whatever data the
family could provide to the cardiologist would be useful.
The Urbandale High School PE department provided Trish with a heart
monitor to wear for a weekend and printed out the results for the heart specialist to
view. With the information the family was able to provide, Tricia was eventually
diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, a condition that causes
abnormal increases in heart rate and which leads to exhaustion and can be quite
debilitating. The cardiologist provided a prescription that would help manage
Tricia’s heart rate. The medicine had an immediate effect. The fatigue was gone,
and Tricia has more energy than she had experienced in many years. She used to
have trouble breathing and turned bright red during workouts. Now she is able to
keep up with her peers in dance and all physical activity.
Tricia stops just short of saying the activity in PE literally kept her from
dying. “Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome can be life threatening; my case
is not.” She continued, though, that the creative heart monitor activity in her PE
class did provide the most important evidence to the reason for her exhaustion.
Susan Richards was more definite. “High school PE might have saved my daughter’s
life. At the very least, the quality of her life has vastly improved since she started
taking the medicine, and the heart monitor activity in PE class provided the clue that
the doctors weren’t able to find.”
Heart monitors are just one of the improvements in physical education class
in recent years. PE has evolved from the “throw out the ball and let them play”
mentality to playing a vital role in creating a safer community and teaching life long
healthy activities. PE instructors in Iowa are required to be certified as Water Safety
Instructors (WSI) and teach a unit on water safety. All PE instructors are certified in
first aid and CPR is a required part of the PE curriculum in Iowa; each student is
certified in CPR through their high school PE class. When instruction is not centered
around health and safety certifications, the staff concentrates on efforts that will
provide students exercise strategies and habits for maintaining a life long healthy
lifestyle including facts about nutrition. In fact, when considering the scope of
activities that take place, PE class ranks among one of the most important services
schools provide for kids and families.
It may be time to change the name of the course to Essential Strategies for a
Safe and Healthy Lifestyle. That’s too long for the title of a high school course, and it
won’t fit on a transcript. However, if you ask the Richards family, it is exactly what
is happening in PE class, and Tricia’s story is just one way that Urbandale’s PE
department has a positive effect on the health and welfare of students at UHS.