CLEVELAND -- The strain some high school athletes put on their hearts can be fatal if they have a serious heart defect.

But almost no high school in the country does a physical that could detect a fatal condition, reported NewsChannel5 in Cleveland.

Shai Owens had just finished a 3-mile cross-country race.

"She just sort of sat down, and they said the next thing they knew she just kind of slumped over," her mother, Nicolette Owens, said.

"Her eyes just, were just gone. I couldn't see (her) in her eyes anymore and that's when it just sort of hit us," friend Alfred Lopez said.

"And that was it, it was quick and quiet," Nicolette Owens said. "That was my heart, that was my child, my first child, and it devastates you."

Owens, 16, was dead. A faulty heart valve was to blame -- a defect that was not detected during her routine school physical.

"Let me put it to you this way with respect to the screening that's being done now, where the doctor volunteers his or her time, goes to the school, listens to the heart, and listens to the chest. That's worthless," said Dr. Angel Leon, a cardiologist.

Leon said serious heart defects could only be discovered with an electrocardiogram, an EKG.

"A screening EKG is going to catch a lot of these abnormalities, and at least identify the individuals (who) need closer attention," Leon said.

Owens' heart could have been surgically repaired, if only they had known, according to doctors.

That's why her mother believes that all student athletes should be required to have an EKG.

"If I had been able to see that with Shai, we would've been able to pick up that she had a problem," Nicolette Owens said. "I would have pulled her and then I would have had her checked out thoroughly by the cardiologist, by the doctors, until they told me everything was fine."

Health insurance rarely covers EKGs for teenagers.

The cost is about $75 for parents to have one done on their child.

Here are some good tips for every parent:

• Before your child participates in any athletic activity, take him or her to the doctor for a physical exam. The doctor can help assess any special risk for injury your child may have.
• Make sure your child wears all of the required safety gear every time he or she plays and practices.