News & Studies

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is the leading cause of sudden death in exercising young athletes, but despite data showing that early defibrillation with automated external defibrillators (AEDs) can save nearly two-thirds of student-athletes who suffer SCA, many U.S. high schools are not prepared to respond to an SCA or have significant deficiencies that could be improved, a new study finds.

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 death of young, seemingly healthy, athletes from undetected heart problems often generates considerable media attention and re-ignites the debate over the optimal approach to screening young competitive athletes for heart problems to minimize death from sudden cardiac arrest.

Children who don't exercise enough may show early signs of cardiovascular disease, according to a study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine's 57th Annual Meeting in Baltimore.

Sudden deaths due to ill-timed blows to the chest (commotio cordis) are more common in the nation's fastest growing sport, lacrosse, than in any other sport, according to a new study in the September 2009 journal, Pediatrics.

According to the September 12, 2004 story in the Macon (Georgia) Telegraph, when rising football star Ryan Boslet suffered sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) during a workout at his school gym on February 20, 2003, the AED the school had only recently purchased wasn't used - even though it was just the length of a basketball court away in the athletic director's office - because a staff member couldn't find the adhesive electrode pads, which were tucked under a flap inside the AED. Thinking the device was inoperable, coaches called 911, and administered CPR to the 6-foot-4, 270 pound defensive tackle, but the 17-year old died later that day. Boslet's death, said the story, points to a larger problem: "Ordinary people, even with training, often can't use the increasingly popular defibrillators under the pressure of an emergency."