Cleveland family hosts race to remember son, lost to rare heart disease

It’s a heart condition with few, if any, symptoms, but it can lead to sudden cardiac death.  

Back in 1991, Patrick Joyce, a former basketball player at St. Edward High School, died suddenly during his freshman year in college. Doctors now think a genetic heart condition caused his death. His family is using a race, coming up next weekend, not only to remember Patrick, but to share their story in the hopes of saving lives.

The ninth annual Patrick Joyce 5K Run is Saturday, Aug. 13 in West Park. Part of the proceeds will go towards research for his condition, a disorder of the heart’s electrical activity that can cause sudden, dangerous changes to the heart rate with exercise or stress which affects one in 2,500 kids in the United States. 

“Typically patients that have this syndrome don't know it, so it's something that's relatively silent,” says Dr. Peter Aziz, a pediatric cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic Children’s."It's a substantial minority here that we're seeing in this."

The Joyce family, through genetic testing, has now found out that even more people in their family are affected by this condition.

Watch Cleveland 19 News Friday, Aug. 12 at 5 a.m. to hear from the Joyce family and learn the red flags for the dangerous condition.