On July 5, 2018, a week shy of his 18th birthday, Zac Mago began the day just like any other; he took his grandma to breakfast and then went shopping. Upon returning home, though, he told his sister he didn’t feel good and went to take a nap. Zac Mago passed away in his sleep that afternoon.
His mother, Teresa Mago, was devastated and was at the time unaware of what caused her son’s death.
“We didn't know what had happened for six weeks or so. They told us that it was an enlarged heart and that it just sometimes happens to athletes. So, they didn't give us any answer,” Teresa Mago said.
It wasn’t until she reached out to Parent Heart Watch that she began to get the closure she needed, and once she got one of the answers she was looking for, she decided to take action.
“How could this have happened?” Teresa Mago asked. “And then I happened to reach out one day to Parent Heart Watch, and Martha, with that organization, said, ‘Honey, what did the autopsy say?’ I told her, and she said, ‘That's called sudden cardiac arrest,’ and then I knew what we would do.”
After learning about Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA), Teresa Mago and her family started to set up heart screenings to help others.
“To honor Zac’s legacy we provided heart screens, because if he'd had another screening, maybe we would have detected a change in his heart. I learned kids should be screened every two years, not one and done.”
Teresa Mago said her son had a heart screening in 2014 where everything appeared normal. As a result, she thought that meant he was in the clear. She said having more frequent tests could have detected problems earlier on, and wanted to offer screenings to help bring these potential problems to attention.
Shortly after, Teresa Mago and her family began the Zac Mago Foundation. She said she decided to pursue creating the foundation in honor of her son’s love for business. Zac Mago wanted to start his own real-estate business and had planned to name it Zac Mago Enterprises.
From the moment the foundation was created, it was already saving lives.
“Our first heart screening was May 1st, 2019, and it's that very first heart screening. A young man had a lethal condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) for short. He had a heart ablation, and the way he felt was how he thought he was supposed to feel. He had no idea that that was not normal," Teresa Mago said.
The screening allowed the man to become aware of problems that would have never been noticed otherwise.
Teresa Mago said signs and symptoms to look out for include a racing heartbeat before or during an activity, fatigue, shortness of breath, and unexplained seizures. She also stressed this can happen to anyone, not just athletes or children and young adults.
While Zac Mago displayed some symptoms of SCA, the symptoms appeared as normal reactions to life events, so he didn’t think to question it. Zac Mago was always a very active child and loved to play basketball. The day before his passing, he was playing games and staying active at a lake house for a Fourth of July party, so it just made sense that he was a bit tired the day after that. Teenagers also have typically very busy and packed schedules, so it seemed normal for him to be tired after a long day of school full of AP classes, sports, and extracurriculars.
The foundation is also working to put automated external defibrillators (AEDs), machines that help people experiencing SCA, in multiple places throughout Northwest Indiana. The decision to pursue this came about when a local business declined her first request to put one in, and then shortly after a man collapsed and went into sudden cardiac arrest at that facility.
Teresa Mago is also using her business, Liquid Packaging Solutions, Inc., to help create AED cabinets for the area.
At the time of his death, Zac Mago was about to start his senior year of high school. A bright kid with tons of potential, he was selected to be in a start-up Moxy program where he would have started his own business. He was also in the top ten in his class and was an excellent leader in everything he did.
Zac Mago was also very close with his family. He enjoyed traveling with his mom for basketball and family vacations and had plans to incorporate his sister into his future business. His grandma would also visit him after school and sometimes run him to and from basketball practice.
“He was the glue that kept his younger brother and older sister together,” Teresa Mago said.
She said her favorite memory with her son was when he accompanied her on a business trip in Las Vegas. At 6’ 5”, Zac Mago was never questioned for his age, so his mom snuck him into the casino together, and the two had an absolute blast that night.
Teresa Mago encourages everyone, regardless of age, to get frequent heart screenings to make sure their heart stays healthy and strong.
For more information about the Zac Mago Foundation and how to help, visit https://zacmagofoundation.org/