December 14th Meeting
Posted by Vicki Rowe
We had a great meeting, with two guests who are prospective members in attendance and Dr. Thomas Debauche as our speaker. Guests were Larry Cockman of Texas Security Shredding and Carlos Casanova of Casanova's Signs. Both expressed interest in joining our club, so please extend them a warm welcome at the next meeting.
Keith presented two checks, one to Gabby, the man who sets up our room and cleans up after our meetings, and the other to Stan Carr who accepted the $590 check on behalf of the Salvation Army. This amount brought our Kettle donation total to $1,000.
Mike Castro reminded us to put Dec. 9th on our calendars for the Road Clean Up. You can sign up online for this service project.
Charlie reminded us of the District raffle for a 2010 Prius that will culminate at District Conference. Each member will receive 5 tickets to sell. Charlie told us that they make great Christmas gifts for clients or hard-to-buy-for friends and relatives. There is also a letter that Ed Charlesworth has sent out that you can send with the tickets. Contact Glen Rowe if you are interested in the letter. He will also have the tickets available at the next meeting.
D. Ray Young told us that the interviews for outbound exchange students on Saturday went great and that we have lots of excellent candidates.
Dr. Debauche was the winner of our $5,000 raffle in November, and he generously donated the money back to our club. He is a cardiologist who is a former Rotarian and he truly lives out the "Service Above Self" motto. His presentation highlighted an effort to screen CyFair athletes for cardiac abnormalities. His article "Cost Effective Screening of Athletes in a Large District" explained his efforts to see that CyFair athletes all receive EKGs and further testing if the EKG reveals abnormalities. The primary cause of heart problems in this country is hypertrophic cardiomiopathy or thickened heart muscles that cause the heart to contract and refuse to come out of the contraction. An EKG is the most cost effective way to find out if a young athlete has this condition or any other cardiac abnormality that might be life threatening.
Dr. Debauche is currently working with Senator Dan Patrick to have this test paid for by the state for all athletes in every Texas school district. The EKGs are done by the school's trainers, but are sent via email to a cardiologist who, like Dr. Debauche, volunteers his time to read them. About 10% of EKGs done on high school athletes reveal abnormalities and then an echocardiogram is done to see if there is cause for concern. About 10% of those actually result in diagnosing a dangerous condition. In CyFair, just over 2,000 athletes were screened last year and out of those 11 were ultimately unable to participate in sports because of a heart condition. One student's life was saved by the screening.
Justin Lindstrom suggested that our club explore ways to help in this life-saving effort. Small school districts don't have EKG machines, so currently Dr. Debauche is working with Dr. Anthony, CyFair superintendent, on getting the word out to the surrounding districts. It is great to know that CyFair is on the cutting edge of this process. We all enjoyed Dr. Debauche's talk very much.
Keith presented two checks, one to Gabby, the man who sets up our room and cleans up after our meetings, and the other to Stan Carr who accepted the $590 check on behalf of the Salvation Army. This amount brought our Kettle donation total to $1,000.
Mike Castro reminded us to put Dec. 9th on our calendars for the Road Clean Up. You can sign up online for this service project.
Charlie reminded us of the District raffle for a 2010 Prius that will culminate at District Conference. Each member will receive 5 tickets to sell. Charlie told us that they make great Christmas gifts for clients or hard-to-buy-for friends and relatives. There is also a letter that Ed Charlesworth has sent out that you can send with the tickets. Contact Glen Rowe if you are interested in the letter. He will also have the tickets available at the next meeting.
D. Ray Young told us that the interviews for outbound exchange students on Saturday went great and that we have lots of excellent candidates.
Dr. Debauche was the winner of our $5,000 raffle in November, and he generously donated the money back to our club. He is a cardiologist who is a former Rotarian and he truly lives out the "Service Above Self" motto. His presentation highlighted an effort to screen CyFair athletes for cardiac abnormalities. His article "Cost Effective Screening of Athletes in a Large District" explained his efforts to see that CyFair athletes all receive EKGs and further testing if the EKG reveals abnormalities. The primary cause of heart problems in this country is hypertrophic cardiomiopathy or thickened heart muscles that cause the heart to contract and refuse to come out of the contraction. An EKG is the most cost effective way to find out if a young athlete has this condition or any other cardiac abnormality that might be life threatening.
Dr. Debauche is currently working with Senator Dan Patrick to have this test paid for by the state for all athletes in every Texas school district. The EKGs are done by the school's trainers, but are sent via email to a cardiologist who, like Dr. Debauche, volunteers his time to read them. About 10% of EKGs done on high school athletes reveal abnormalities and then an echocardiogram is done to see if there is cause for concern. About 10% of those actually result in diagnosing a dangerous condition. In CyFair, just over 2,000 athletes were screened last year and out of those 11 were ultimately unable to participate in sports because of a heart condition. One student's life was saved by the screening.
Justin Lindstrom suggested that our club explore ways to help in this life-saving effort. Small school districts don't have EKG machines, so currently Dr. Debauche is working with Dr. Anthony, CyFair superintendent, on getting the word out to the surrounding districts. It is great to know that CyFair is on the cutting edge of this process. We all enjoyed Dr. Debauche's talk very much.