The Cause is Why We Swim

Be a part of an urgent effort to accelerate our understanding, and ultimately a cure for Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) – a major cause of natural death in children and young adults worldwide.

With no warning symptoms until the fatal incident, prevention for SCD has been difficult. In the young, SCD is usually due to inherited genetic disorders that may result in the death of otherwise healthy individuals. Particularly tragic is the sudden death of a child or young athlete with no previous exhibited physical problems. Clearly new approaches are needed to enable early detection, prevention, and management to assure a promising future for people at risk for SCD.

As a leader in SCD research, Rambam’s breakthrough studies can have a global impact. Your dedicated efforts to help raise funds for this critical research are more important than ever!

Your Impact

Swim from the Heart was inspired by open-water swimmers in Haifa’s sister city of San Francisco, passionate swimmers just like you! Donations from the first annual ‘Swim from the Heart’ event have already dramatically helped Rambam researchers.

It was known that young people and otherwise healthy individuals with inherited arrhymogenic syndromes can suddenly experience life-threatening arrhythmias leading to SCD. However, Swim from the Heart donations helped our researchers discover that many of these syndromes are far more widespread than was previously realized. This underscores the urgency for identifying those at risk for SCD.

Funds contributed towards our genetic research uncovered two new gene mutations responsible for life threatening arrhythmias. With this knowledge, Rambam researchers have set up a stem cell model to determine which gene mutations can lead to arrhythmias. Armed with this information, they can then begin working on novel therapies to detect and prevent SCD.