By David Taylor
Managing Editor
Following the devastating effects of the COVID pandemic, the Cody Stephens Foundation found themselves with a dwindling staff and volunteers. It forced the Crosby-based 501(c)(3) charity to pivot with a new strategy for their mission that now seems to be producing exponential results for reaching students across Texas with life-saving screenings.
“It’s heartbreaking when you lose one,” Scott Stephens told a KHOU 11 reporter when a Katy ISD cheerleader, Katie Marie Mitchell, 16, suffered a cardiac arrest while at a cheer camp at Texas A&M and died.
It hasn’t been for a lack of trying.
“We went to Katy ISD 10 years ago and thought we had them, but their doctor spoke out against it, and they voted it down,” he said, disappointed.
That doctor has since died, and Callie will never see graduation either.
At 6 ft 9 in and 289 lbs, Cody Stephens was every line coach’s dream. The mountain of a young man was daunting for opposing teams, and his future was bright, with a scholarship offer to play football at Tarleton State University.
His life was cut short with sudden cardiac arrest at 18. He never saw graduation or collected his promised football scholarship. Now his father spends countless hours speaking anywhere he is invited, to warn parents of the impending danger.
“When Callie passed away, her mom was an assistant principal at one of the Katy schools and her dad was head of security,” Stephens said.
Their connections helped force a revisit of the program in front of another set of school board members who recently voted positively for the program.
“They bought the machines and placed them in the schools and are now offering screening to students, teachers, and even parents,” he said.
Yes, bought machines. It’s the new strategy that has made life a little easier on the smaller staff.
“It’s the model we’ve kind of gone too. Texas is so big it’s hard to set up screenings with our staff all over the state,” he said.
Now they offer the machines at a discount to the schools, teach the nurses and coaches how to do the ECGs, they email them back to Stephens’ staff in Houston, where the cardiologist reads them and sends them the results.
“After Katy ISD joined, Lamar Consolidated ISD in Fort Bend also joined up,” he said.
Goose Creek Consolidated has also bought machines and will begin screening this fall.
Large districts reach a much larger population of students and that sits well with Stephens.
“These machines are user friendly and have the most recent criteria already built into the software,” he said.
They purchase the machines from CardiaScreen in Dublin, Ohio, and it includes a laptop and hard carrying case for storage.
The turnaround of the results from the cardiologist is typically within 72 hours.
“We plan on using our machines to screen our fall athletes in the spring, and our spring athletes in the fall,” said Lee Martinez, athletic director for Goose Creek Consolidated ISD in Baytown. “We’re going to make it part of our culture with athletics, fine arts and any others that want it here in our district.”
More than 200 turned out for their first event, and he said they are planning more. Martinez said he was excited to be able to save kids’ lives.
“We now have the means to do it,” he said.
For Stephens, his organization will continue to be hands-on with full-screening events.
“We still do full screenings from about Waco, south to the coast,” he said, “but we’ve found that this is a much easier solution and allows us to expand our reach. We can reach Texas if we get the machines in the hands of the schools.”
Stephens said one of the objections he had faced was when a student did have a follow-up echocardiogram that shows a picture of the health of the heart, it was expensive for parents.
“We now have access to an echo that’s very reasonably priced,” he said.
Since 2012, Stephens has continued to fight to save the lives of Texas children and spare other parents the heartache and pain he and his family experienced with the loss of their son.
To learn more about the Cody Stephens Foundation or to make a donation, please visit their website at https://www.codystephensfoundation.org