Live Like Max: Heart screenings honor late college student

(TNS) CANTON, Mich. — Max is everywhere in Lisa and John Pardington's home.

His image is frozen in the photographs on the tables and shelves.

He is in the sound of the angel bell that rings on the back patio every time the wind blows.

His face smiles from book covers resting on the coffee table.

His name is on the neatly folded sweatshirts and T-shirts that bear the phrase "Live Like Max."

Although Max Pardington is gone now — his heart stopped beating as he slept this past June — his parents say their 20-year-old son never really left them.

"So when that bell rings and there is no wind, 'Oh, my gosh,' I'll say to John. 'Am I nuts or is there no wind? And he'll say, 'There's no wind. That's Max,'" says Lisa Pardington. "That's all we have left of him."

As we talk on a frigid January night, the gentle ringing can be heard through the family room window.

"If I'm out on the deck, and I'm filling the bird feeder or I'm grilling something, and that bell rings, I will say, 'Max, I hear you.'"

The Pardingtons now are committed to trying to ensure no other parent has to suffer a loss like theirs, to be left with the sound of angel bells rather than that of their child's voice.

They've created a foundation called Live Like Max to raise money for free heart screenings for student athletes, and to raise awareness of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the genetic heart condition that lurked silently in Max's chest.

"We are on a mission to save other kids," says Lisa Pardington, who, with her husband, owns a business called Holiday Market in Canton.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy occurs in about 1 in every 500 people, says Dr. David Haines, a cardiovascular medicine specialist for Beaumont Health System who was among the doctors who played a key role in developing the Student Heart Check program in 2007.

People are born with the anomaly, which is an abnormal thickening and stiffening of the heart walls, which also makes a person susceptible to electrical rhythm problems.

Says Haines: "It usually doesn't even show up in young children. Typically, as the patient grows into their adult-sized heart, that's when the muscular thickening and disordered growth of the heart muscle occurs. That's why it's so tragic. You've got a kid who's been entirely healthy into their adolescence. Then they hit their teenage years, and hit a growth spurt and have a ... very thickened heart."

Often, he said there are no symptoms. And a regular physical exam can't detect it. The best way to find it is through the combination of an EKG and electrocardiogram.

Lisa Pardington said Max had dozens of physicals in his life — and none suggested a problem. He played varsity basketball at his high school. He was a skier, an adventurer and just a few days before he died, he ran 10 miles in Canton in preparation for the Iron Man competition.

There was never any sign of a problem until the day he died. He was, she says, in peak physical shape.

That June day, he'd called Lisa Pardington to tell her that his heart felt like it was racing. He'd spent the day working in a western Michigan vineyard, tending to the vines. After work, he did a strenuous workout.

"I said, 'Max, you worked all day in the hot sun pruning the vines. Then you come immediately home, and you work out on the beach.' ... I said, 'You're probably dehydrated.'

"I said 'Max, if your heart rate doesn't go down, you really need to seek medical attention.' I told him, 'There's a clinic in Sutton's Bay, and you know where Munson hospital is.' "

"So he says, 'Mom, I'm going to call you every hour.'"

He followed through on that promise, calling Lisa Pardington for the last time just before 9 p.m.

"He said, 'I'm feeling a little bit better. I'm tired, and I'm watching a movie,'" Lisa Pardington said. "I told him I loved him."

That was the last conversation he had with his family.

"None of it was a red flag to me. None of it," said Lisa Pardington. "That never once crossed my mind, like that my kid might have cardiac disease. Or my kid might not wake up because of a racing heart. I'm thinking, 'you're so healthy, you just overtaxed your body.'

"Our lives have been turned upside down since that moment. This is why it's so important that we get the word out. He was a really, really good kid. He loved his family, he loved his friends, his brothers and sisters."

Since the foundation began six months ago, the Pardingtons have raised almost $40,000 for the cause through product sales, wine-tasting events and donations.

The foundation is using that money to team up with Beaumont Health to offer a free heart screenings at the end of January for 450 high school students at a local high school.

"We're going to save a life," Lisa Pardington says.

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