After an electrocardiogram (ECG) and a CAT scan, Patel found a structural issue with Jeremiyah\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n
She said it was a potentially deadly diagnosis.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was born with this defect. It\u2019s considered a congenital defect and is actually the second leading cause of sudden cardiac arrest in athletes,\u201d said Patel.<\/p>\n
The only way to fix the issue was open-heart surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe came in with the heart mold, that kind of like crushed me a little bit,\u201d said Jeremiyah, thinking back. \u201cI felt like, dang, I\u2019ve been playing basketball this whole time and like, why haven\u2019t I felt anything until now?\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeremiyah had a choice: get the major surgery or risk living a life where his heart could give out at any moment. The choice was simple for his parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI (couldn\u2019t) care less if you played again,\u201d said Fred. \u201cShe did say he could live without having a surgery, but it will always be there, like in the back of your mind. And so, I leaned on Shyree because I said, \u2018What is your motherly instincts telling you?\u2019 And she was like, \u2018He needs a surgery.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought about my love for the game and then Dr. Patel also said something about how if I was 35 or something and I was playing with my kids, I would still be at risk for something happening when I get older,\u201d said Jeremiyah.<\/p>\n
![\"Jeremiyah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/drpateljeremyiah.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Jeremiyah Shepeard (left) and Dr. Anjlee Patel, a pediatric cardiologist at AdventHealth (right). (Spectrum News\/Erin Murray)<\/p>\n
It was enough to push him to go through with the procedure. A choice he didn\u2019t take lightly, but a choice he at least had the chance to make.<\/p>\n
A choice many Florida athletes did not get to make.<\/p>\n
Antonio Hicks was a Citrus High School football player. His mom, Lakesha Harrison, visits his grave weekly in Citrus County and often wonders, \u201cWhat he would be doing? How many kids he would have?\u201d<\/p>\n
Life events that will never come to pass for Antonio. Like Jeremiyah, Antonio loved sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom wrestling, basketball, wrestling again… Pop Warner, everything, I mean soccer,\u201d said Lakesha, pointing at different jerseys stitched into a blanket.<\/p>\n
If it involved a ball, Antonio played it. Football was his favorite, and at practice on Sept. 28, 2021, that big defensive lineman went down.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach Frank had called me and was like, \u2018I just did CPR on Antonio,\u2019\u201d said Harrison. \u201cAnd his voice, just his voice. I just took off out the door screaming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Antonio died on the field. His autopsy showed he had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.<\/p>\n
An ECG would have shown his condition.<\/p>\n
![\"Lakesha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Lakesha_Harrison.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Lakesha Harrison, the mother of Antonio Hicks, sits at his gravesite. Antonio died from a heart issue in Citrus County a few years ago. (Spectrum News\/Erin Murray)<\/p>\n
Starting July 1<\/a>, every Florida high school student athlete will have to undergo an ECG screening to play sports.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a test that looks at the electricity of the heart, but it also gives us information about the structure of the heart in the sense of thickening to the heart muscle, chamber enlargement, arrhythmias and things. So it really does give us a quite a bit of information at our fingertips,\u201d said Patel.<\/p>\n Patel firmly believes these tests will save lives.<\/p>\n \u201cI am so glad that this law was passed, and it will keep kids safer,\u201d said Patel.<\/p>\n While it won\u2019t bring back Antonio, Lakesha\u2019s faith firmly assures her that her son\u2019s life story will save others.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a purpose. God has \u2014 had a plan. And he brought him home by his purpose, opened other eyes,\u201d said Harrison.<\/p>\n Opened the eyes of lawmakers, school leaders, parents and coaches, the countless leaders who pushed to pass the Second Chance Act in 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cHis coach said to me something that I\u2019ll never forget,\u201d said Shyree, Jeremiyah\u2019s mom. \u201cHe said, \u2018This seems to happen a lot to kids.\u2019 And I remember that at his school two years prior, there was an athlete, a football player that passed.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeremiyah and his family help kids today sign up for ECG screenings now being held in every Florida county. They assist the organization Who We Play For<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jeremiyah does this because he is thankful to be alive.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m thankful for Dr. Patel. I\u2019m thankful for even that game. I\u2019m thankful for that. Like everything happened the way it did,\u201d said Jeremiyah.<\/p>\n It has been just over a year since he collapsed and had open-heart surgery. Today he has been fully cleared to play basketball again.<\/p>\n AdventHealth said the cost of an ECG is $15<\/a> at their facilities. Who We Play For is hosting several events<\/a> this summer for kids to get the screenings done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 This summer thousands of kids will run onto a sports field, baseball diamond, pitch or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3948,1747,6466,4318,3140,1238,7083,3075,28,30,29,571,6075,1745,3745,276,115,139,99,110,1237,135,26795,835],"class_list":["post-322944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-app-health","tag-app-high-school-sports","tag-app-latest-health-stories","tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-sports","tag-citrus-county","tag-erin-murray","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-health","tag-health-and-medicine","tag-high-school-football","tag-high-school-sports","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-politics","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-tampa","tag-topic-latest-local-sports","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}