Another High School player dies

[golfgal]

It's not happening any more often than it ever did -- you're just hearing about it because of the internet. 100 years ago the same kids would have died working in the fields, or carrying boxes in a warehouse, or just doing chores around the house. News of the deaths would not have left the family/community. It has nothing to do with sports or coaches, simply with continuous exertion.

An awareness of family history is your best bet for reasonable suspicion and tests to rule out the problem.

I agree-we had kids when I was in high school die, a boy and a girl from our high school died from what was probably heart conditions. The girl was playing basketball, came out of the game, sat on the bench and fell over, she died almost instantly.

Our twins just had their sports physicals. They require them here every 3 years to participate in sports. They ask a lot of questions about shortness of breath, heart palpations, etc. but don't do specific testing. I wonder how many kids would really recognize these symptoms even if they had them?

 

[tzolkin]

My DH had WPW too Same story, didn't recognize 'till playing basketball as an adult and ended up in the hospital.

WPW can be detected by reading a heart monitor strip - can't they hook kids up before going into sports?

I didn't think it could be detected unless you were observed while having an episode of tachycardia.


My brother once had an issue while playing basketball in HS. He was checked out and told that he was fine so he continued playing sports.

Last year he started having a few issues, but nothing could be detected even with extended cardiac monitoring. They didn't confirm what the problem was until he was taken to the hospital after playing football with friends with a heart rate of over 300. He had an ablation, which we found was unsuccessful when he wound up in the hospital a few weeks later with an episode that was almost impossible to get under control. He had cardiac arrest during his second ablation and wound up with a pacemaker/defibrillator at age 26.

Recently, my mother has been working with the local schools to make sure they have AEDs and are more informed about these issues.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I didn't think it could be detected unless you were observed while having an episode of tachycardia.

Generally, it can. There is a shortened PR interval and a delta wave. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/159222-overview

 

[Pea-n-Me]

They ask a lot of questions about shortness of breath, heart palpations, etc. but don't do specific testing. I wonder how many kids would really recognize these symptoms even if they had them?

People (parents) often realize this in retrospect - once an enlarged heart is found, then they start to think back and realize there were symptoms there but they were subtle or maybe even fleeting and they either didn't think much of them, or talked to someone about it and they didn't make much of them. As parents, we need to watch for these subtleties and push for evaluation if they're occuring.

Enlarged hearts in young people can occur as the result of genetics, structural abnormalities, viral illness, drugs (chemotherapies and illicit drugs like cocaine), pregnancy, a few other causes (primarily seen in older folks, like longstanding untreated hypertension, alcohol, coronary artery disease, heart attacks, etc), and sometimes it's idiopathic, ie the cause cannot be determined. So even if you don't have a family history, it's good to watch for other signs that may indicate there's a problem. But with all that said, very often it's a critical event (like passing out) or severe symptoms (like the sudden inability to breathe) that brings it to light.

 

[Mermaid02]

This happened to a sitting Governor here in Maine:

McKernan has been married twice. His first marriage was to Judith Vigue. They had one child together, Peter McKernan, but the couple subsequently divorced in 1978. On January 23, 1991, Peter died of a previously undetected heart problem after lying in a coma for nine days. He had collapsed during baseball practice at Dartmouth College. He was 20 years old at the time, played junior varsity baseball at Dartmouth and had recently joined the school's Beta Theta Pi fraternity

 

[Anne34]

My kids get sports physicals each year before they can participate. Also, our school hosts EKG's for all athletes in the spring. The recruit parents that are doctors/nurses, etc to work it. Parents have to sign them up and pay a minimal amount ($30?). We got the results back shortly after. I have done this for both of my high schoolers. Better safe than sorry.