There was a funeral for a 16-year-old Orange County schoolboy two weeks ago. We have the knowledge and the technology to prevent these kinds of deaths. This innocent Irvine lad died playing basketball in a high school gym class.

Each year we are jarred by the deaths of young apparently healthy youngsters or young adults not previously thought to be ill who collapse while engaged in some sort of athletic activity. Most such catastrophes occur when a heart rhythm suddenly goes from a life-sustaining regular beat to a wildly chaotic and usually fatal irregularity. This may be what occurred in the Irvine youngster. Paramedics found him in full cardiac arrest.

Most of these tragedies occur because of the presence of a silent potential killer, a congenital abnormal thickening of a portion of heart muscle. The condition itself is not a killer. Recognized and treated, most people with this disorder can live out a normal life span. But sometimes under the strain of physical exertion the heart becomes chaotic and often the patient dies before electrical shock can restore its normal rhythm.

Occasionally an ordinary cold virus can temporarily infect the heart, which makes me cringe whenever I hear of college or professional athletes being pressured to play football or basketball with fever or flu.

The congenital condition can be readily diagnosed by a relatively new but universally available procedure called echo-cardiography, an ultrasound picture of the heart. Every youngster who may engage in moderately heavy physical exertion should have this procedure to avoid the tragedy we lament today.

In a comment accompanying the news of the student's death, a university cardiologist is quoted as saying that "sudden death in adolescents is so rare that it is not practical to screen everyone in that age group for heart disease." Not practical for whom? Not practical for the mourning Irvine family who will no longer have the joy of raising their 16-year-old? Not practical for the friends and classmates who mourn him and may have suffered grievous lifelong psychological trauma?