Injury Prevention

In early June 2010 tragedy struck a baseball field in Arizona when a 13-year-old Little Leaguer trying to bunt was struck in the chest. He took a few steps towards first base, collapsed, and died the next morning. Getting hit by a pitch is to be expected when playing baseball. Dying is not. What killed the Arizona boy? A rare condition called commotio cordis.

The recent and tragic death of two young, seemingly healthy, athletes from undetected heart problems has generated considerable media attention and re-ignited the debate over the optimal approach to screening young competitive athletes for heart problems to minimize death from sudden cardiac arrest.

During the 2003 fall sports season, MomsTeam received numerous e-mails, phone calls and visits with news far exceeding our worst fears about the number of deaths in youth sports.

About 50 young athletes go into sudden cardiac arrest each year and die from a rare congenital heart defect called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM ).   While some parent groups advocate for routine electrocardiogram (ECG) screening for youth athletes, MomsTeam expert Donald Collins says attacking the HCM problem through education, by forming alliances between schools, leagues and sports governing bodies with medical organizations and by the taking of detailed family history during a young athlete's pre-participation physical evaluation is a cost-effective approach to early detection.