Increasingly, we’re hearing more about parents learning of their child’s undiagnosed and hidden heart conditions. Most recently, there was the story of LeBron James’ son, Bronny, collapsing during a University of Southern California workout. Before him, Shaquille O’Neal’s son, Shareef O’Neal, was undergoing a routine physical when doctors discovered a life-threatening heart ailment.
But celebrity children aren’t the only ones suffering. They’re just the ones with the biggest headlines. Now, one mother is trying to raise awareness among all parents.
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A teen reached the top of a rock-climbing wall and went limp.
Sammy Berko, a 16-year-old from Missouri City, Texas, was rock climbing with his friends when his condition came to light, according to People. He reached the top of the wall, rang the bell, and went limp. Berko’s friends thought he was playing and started throwing their hats at him. But he didn’t move.
A radiologist happened to be there and administered CPR until the ambulance arrived. Sammy was taken to Texas Children’s Hospital, where doctors continued working on him.
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Sammy and his mom Jennifer, both have CPVT, and so did his brother Frankie.
At 6:35 p.m., doctors pronounced him dead and instructed his parents, Jennifer and Craig, to say goodbye.
Sadly, this was not the first time the Berko family had been in this situation. Sammy’s 10-year-old brother, Frankie, died suddenly in September 2019. Later, DNA testing revealed that Frankie, Sammy, and Jennifer, had a genetic heart condition called catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, or CPVT. The rare disorder affects 1 in 10,000 people and can cause the heart to stop.
Jennifer told Sammy she didn't believe he was going to die.
As Jennifer was telling her son Sammy how much she loved him and how proud of him she was, she also prayed. Her husband just stood there, staring in disbelief. Then they saw him move. Craig screamed for a doctor, who told the couple it was probably a reflex, but then Sammy’s neck turned purple and his pulse started. Doctors rushed him to the pediatric ICU.
“That was a very long night,“ Jennifer remembered. The next morning, doctors told the Berkos that Sammy’s major organs were shutting down and he might not survive the day. They were devastated by the news but remained hopeful.
“After watching my son be pronounced dead and brought back to life, I didn’t believe it … I didn’t think he would die,” Jennifer said. And that’s just what she told Sammy.
“I said, 'Sammy, they’re telling us you’re not going to make it through the next 24 hours. I want you to know that I don’t believe a word of it. I have seen you come back to life. And if you can do that, then I truly believe you are going to pull through. I know you will come back to us. I know you will wake up,'” she recalled, according to People.
Later that day, he did.
While he was unconscious, oxygen went to his brain instead of his spine.
“It was miraculous,” Jennifer said.
Sammy spent the next eight weeks at the hospital before he was transferred to TIRR Memorial Hermann. He underwent 58 days of rehab there. Sammy suffered a series of small strokes as well as a spinal injury, but amazingly, his body sent oxygen to his brain and not to his spine.
“Thank God, because he’s still Sammy,” father Craig said.
Sammy is mostly paralyzed from the waist down. He does have some feeling and the muscles are firing, but he doesn’t have enough lower body strength to support his full body weight. Still, with a walker and braces, he was able to walk out of the rehab facility.
Now, back in high school as a junior, Sammy and his parents are hopeful that he’ll be able to walk independently again.
“I want to be as close to how I was before, if I can,” Sammy said via People.
Jennifer believes her late son Frankie pushed Sammy back to life.
“I truly believe that it was my son Frankie, on the other side, who pushed Sammy back to us and was, ‘It’s not your time. You need to go back,” Jennifer shared.
“And I believe it was Frankie who helped him to not only survive it, but to be himself, to have the brain activity and to still have the personality he has.”
Jennifer said she prays every night and makes sure to talk to Frankie. “I tell him, ‘Please continue the work you’re doing in watching over your brother as he works toward a full recovery,” she said.
As Sammy recovers, Jennifer has become an advocate for child heart health screenings. She doesn’t believe the condition is as rare as people think.
“No other family should ever have to go through what we have been through,” she said, according to People. “There are way too many children, walking around with heart condition and have no idea. And at any moment, their life could be ripped from them.”
