About EP Save a Life

We prevent tragedy that could be just a heartbeat away.

Eric was a healthy Steele Canyon High School sophomore athlete who died suddenly and unexpectedly from Sudden Cardiac Arrest/Death (SCA/D) in 2009. His parents, Hector and Rhina Paredes, established EP Save A Life Foundation to honor him through their commitment to prevent this tragedy from happening to other families. The EP Save A Life Foundation is committed to preventing SCA in young people through awareness, education and action. Saving lives is paramount to our mission and prevention is our goal.

Don’t take a chance with your child’s heart.

Every year thousands of our kids die from this syndrome that can happen without symptoms or warning signs. San Diego alone loses three to five teens annually. It’s not a heart attack. SCA is an abnormality in the heart’s electrical system that can be detected with a simple EKG. But EKGs are NOT a part of your teen’s annual well-child exam or pre-participation sports physical, although they only cost about $100. Eric’s three-hour ER resuscitation effort cost the insurance company over $15,000. How many children must die for us to give merit to the importance of simple heart screenings? It can literally mean the difference between life and death.

Screenings and AEDs could prevent fatal cardiac arrest in your teen.

Eric’s foundation provides free screenings to teens to help identify cardiac anomalies that may lead to SCA, with the ultimate goal of standardizing cardiac screenings among our youth, and equipping schools with readily accessible automated external defibrillators (AEDs) with CPR/AED training for students and staff. The biggest misconception about SCA is that it won’t happen to your teen. You have no family history…your child has no symptoms…your doctor has not indicated a screening was needed. But there is a dangerously low awareness of SCA among parents and the medical community, even though it’s the number one cause of death in the U.S.