A Law Passed So No Other Child
Dies From Comotio Cordis

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During a recent Oprah show on summer safety, I learned of the Louis Acompora Memorial Foundation, that Karen Acompora and her family founded and are now running. The foundation is a wonderful tribute to her son, Louis, and a gift to all parents with children who are in harms way while playing youth sports. As I watched Karen and her husband John, I wanted to climb through the television and give her a big hug and to thank her for the mission she is on to make sure that no other child dies while playing a sport.

It was the morning of March 25, 2000. Fourteen-year old Louis Acompora was nervous. He was getting ready to play his first high school lacrosse game as the goalie for his Northport (Long Island) High School freshman team. His parents, John and Karen Acompora, arrived just as the teams were lining up before the game began, saw their son shake hands with the opposing team's goalie and head back to his goal, where he ceremonially banged the pipes with his goalie stick. Louis nodded to his father in the stands as if to say, "I've made it."

Less than a half an hour into the game, Louis blocked a shot with his chest as he had done countless times before. He picked up the ball, took a few steps, and then, has he attempted a clearing pass, collapsed. John Acompora assumed that his son had had the wind knocked out of him, but to the shock of his parents, the coach and bystanders, Louis was soon unconscious, not breathing, and without a pulse. Rescuers at the scene administered Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) until emergency medical personnel arrived. Attempts to restore a normal heart rhythm through electric shock (defibrillation) were unsuccessful, however, and Louis was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

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What caused such a beautiful, normal, apparently healthy teenager to suddenly die? The Acomporas soon learned that Louis had died of a rare and too often fatal condition called Commotio Cordis (ka-Mo-sho) that occurs as a result of a blow to the chest during a critical interval in the cardiac cycle, throwing the heart into a lethal abnormal heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation. They also learned, sadly, that Louis's death might have been prevented had an automatic external defibrillator been nearby. "Had there been a defibrillator on the field, Louis might have had a chance," said Karen.

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