Mom wants to spare others the tragedy of Tri-City son’s cardiac death at 19

Michelle Stark-Steele will spend her Friday working to prevent another Tri-Cities family from going through the same tragedy hers did.

Her son, Payton Steele, an avid hockey player, graduated from Kamiakin High School in Kennewick in 2024.

Less than a year later he suffered sudden cardiac arrest and died at the age of 19.

Only at the emergency room did doctors finally discover with a noninvasive EKG that he was born with a heart condition. His Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome could have been treated if he and his parents had known he had it.

On Friday, May 15, the Nick of Time Foundation will offer free youth heart screenings for ages 12 to 24 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the HAPO Center at 6600 Burden Blvd., Pasco.

Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in young people exercising or playing sports., happening every other day in the United States, according to the foundation.

Most have hidden cardiac abnormalities with no warning signs until they suffer a sudden cardiac arrest, according to the foundation, started in Mill Creek, Wash., by family members honoring a young athlete who died.

An EKG, or electrocardiogram, can tease on the condition, but they are not part of most sports physicals.

Pasco event to take walk-ins

The Pasco event will offer a medical history review and noninvasive EKGs by medical professionals. If results indicate a need, a heart sound physical and ultrasound of the heart also may be performed.

The even also offers cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) training to prepare young people for an emergency.

Screening is free and no insurance is needed, but some people choose to make a $25 donation. An EKG may cost $150 at a doctor’s office and an ultrasound is far more.

The event has the capacity to screen hundreds of young people, and walk-ins are welcome. However, appointments also are available by sign up at bit.ly/NoTFEKGAppt.

The event has the Tri-Cities support of Richland firefighters and unions for teachers and emergency workers.

“Early detection can save lives,” said Joshua Smith, Richland Fire & Emergency Services battalion chief. “By offering free screenings and education, we are helping families take proactive steps to protect their children’s health and equipping our community with life-saving knowledge.”

Among volunteers at the screening event will be Payton Steele’s family.

“Payton is so incredibly, painfully missed by everyone who knew him,” says his mother. “And I just really, really want to push for those screenings to that another family does not have to go through the nightmare that we went through.”

Had the Steele family known that Payton was born with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome that caused an extra pathway in his heart, it could have been fixed with cardiac ablation, his mother said.

Tri-Cities hockey player’s legacy

Steele’s mother says her son’s twin loves were hockey and baseball. He began playing hockey at the age of 4 and over the next 15 years became a star hockey player and captain in the Tri-Cities Amateur Hockey Association.

After graduating from high school he was an electrical apprentice and shared an apartment in Richland with a brother.

Before midnight on March 16, 2025, she and her husband, Scott Sutton, were woken by a phone call.

Payton was not breathing and her older son was doing CPR while waiting for emergency responders.

His mother said she has no memory of getting dressed or driving to her sons’ apartment, but arrived to find emergency responders trying to revive Payton. They worked on him for 40 minutes before he was stable enough to take to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland.

Along with Payton’s father, Kevin Steele and his wife Wendy, she and Sutton watched in the intensive care unit as a hospital team tried repeatedly to revive his heart, only to lose him again, before he was stable enough to be taken to the intensive care unit.

But 72 hours after his sudden cardiac arrest, multiple tests showed that he had no brain activity, and he was unable to breathe on his own.

Payton had already signed up to be an organ donor, and his teammates, friends, family and hospital workers gathered in the hospital’s hallway to follow him as he was wheeled on a final “honor walk.”

Donations included one of his kidneys to a former co-worker of his father.

It was a final act of generosity from a boy, who started asking at the age of 8 that friends bringing party gifts for his Dec. 23 birthday instead bring money or food for the Benton Franklin Humane Society.

“Some legacies are written not in years, but in love,” the organization posted on Dec. 23, 2025.

“To honor Payton’s legacy, his heart for animals, and the love his family and friends continue to carry forward, each year our shelter will proudly display the ‘Payton Giving Tree,’” the society posted. “This tree will stand as a reminder of kindness, community and a young life that continues to make a difference. “