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.
Nineteen kids:
Nineteen kids from all over the country: six each from the South and Northeast, five from the Mid-West, and two from the Pacific Northwest. Nineteen kids with one thing in common: Within a two and half month period in the fall of 2003, they were all dead.
One minute they were all alive, apparently healthy, the next they were suddenly, tragically gone, leaving teammates, families, classmates, and communities to grieve, to ask why, and to wonder "what if..." And leaving us at MomsTeam to wonder: if we learned about nineteen children, how many more had died during the same time period that we did not learn about?
From interviews, newspaper stories, and Internet websites the following accounts of the lives and tragic deaths of the nineteen athletes emerge:
Matthew Thomas
A 14-year old high school freshman from Victoria, Texas, Matthew was participating in pre-season football practice [1] on August 12, 2003 when he told the trainer he was feeling ill and began vomiting, a symptom of heat stroke [2]. An ambulance was called and Matthew was rushed to DeTar Hospital, where he later died. The autopsy concluded that he died of cardiac arrhythmia [3] (rapid, irregular heartbeat) related to mild dehydration [4], but the medical examiner could not rule out the possibility that Matthew's death was heat-related (the high temperature that day was 92 degrees [5]).
Dan Gorcyzk
On August 12, 2003, the same day Matthew died, heat likely claimed the life of a second high school football player. Dan Gorcyzk, a 16-year-old sophomore at Scranton (Pa) Prep, collapsed during practice on a sweltering afternoon [5] and died the next day. The cause of death has not been reported.
Peter Heuchling
On August 22, 2003, ten days after Dan Gorcyzk and Matthew Thomas died, Peter ("Todd") Heuchling, a 19-year-old Durham, New Hampshire native and second-year cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, was leading a group of cadets competing in a time trial for Army's marathon team. Just yards from the finish line, he collapsed and died. Described by classmates as bright and personable, a leader, and an amazing athlete (one said Todd "redefined the word 'fit' for me"), Todd had no previous health problems. No cause of death has been reported.
Emil Gadjev
On September 11, 2003, Emil, a 13-year-old middle school student from Atlanta, Georgia, collapsed after soccer practice. Due to a series of errors, paramedics did not arrive on the scene until 12 minutes after the 911 call [6]. Emil was pronounced dead 40 minutes later at a nearby hospital from a previously undetected heart condition [7] which had caused sudden cardiac arrest [3]("SCA"). A math and science whiz, he was described by friends and classmates as funny and charismatic. One entry on a memorial website asked Emil to "be happy" because he arrived "at heaven's gates ... with Johnny Cash and John Ritter."
Justin Saccone
Ten days later, on September 21, 2003, Justin, a 15-year-old high school freshman from Cold Spring, Kentucky, was filling in for a youth baseball team short a player when, attempting to bunt, he was struck in the chest over the heart and died from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) [3] as a result of a phenomenon called commotio cordis [8], a rare disruption of the heart's electrical system resulting from blunt impact to the chest. Mourners waited up to two hours to view Justin's casket at the Campbell County High School gym. Close by hung Justin's purple pinstriped baseball uniform with the number 3 on the chest. A crowd of 500 attended a subsequent memorial at the park where Justin, known for his infectious smile and for teaching neighborhood kids to play baseball, had died. In an ironic twist, the game that Sunday involving Justin's former team, being played on Field 3 after Justin's number 3 was announced for the last time, was called off on account of rain at 3 p.m. in the 3rd inning, ending a bake sale which had raised $333 for a memorial fund in Justin's memory.
Kyle Lippo
Less than a week later, 12-year old Kyle Lippo, a 7th grader from Round Lake, Illinois, complained of a headache [9] during a youth football game. Paramedics were called and rushed Kyle to Condell Medical Center, then via emergency helicopter to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, where he died on the morning of September 27, 2003 from head trauma. A Boy Scout, Kyle ran on the track team, played trombone in the band and had just been elected student council representative by his class. Over 300 people attended Kyle's memorial.
Merridy Stilwell
Just two days later, tragedy struck in the Pacific Northwest. On September 29, 2003, Merridy Stilwell, a 12-year old 7th grader from Lake Stevens, Washington, collapsed during a cross-country meet. Coaches performed immediate CPR, and firefighters arrived within 4 minutes and attempted to restore a normal heart rhythm with a portable, computerized device called an automated external defibrillator (AED) [10]. Despite their efforts, Merridy died later that evening at Providence Everett Medical Center from a previously undiagnosed heart condition called cardiomyopathy [11], a rare form of muscle damage to the heart. Described by her mother as "beautiful [and] special," Merridy was remembered as a happy, upbeat, effervescent girl who loved to smile and make people laugh, studied hard, liked taekwondo, soccer and basketball, and enjoyed helping her mother with their Dobermans at dog shows.
Zachary Tran
Two days later, on October 1, 2003, Zachary Tran, a 6-year old 1st grader from Vernon Hills, Illinois, became the second Lake County, Illinois youth to die playing sports. Zachary was at soccer practice when his mother saw him hanging on the crossbar of a large, metal soccer goal. She told her son to stop and walked away. When she returned moments later, she found him on the field surrounded by a group of people. The goal had fallen [12] on Zachary, causing massive head injuries. Paramedics were unable to revive him, and Zachary was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital less than an hour later from blunt head trauma.
Jessica Clinton
The next day, October 2, 2003, it was Port St. Lucie, Florida's turn to suffer the pain of a youth sports death. Jessica Clinton, a 17-year old high school senior, was getting some water during cheerleading practice when she fell, lost consciousness, stopped breathing, and later died. An autopsy revealed that Jessica died of cardiac dysrhythmia caused by an undetected congenital heart condition called mitral valve prolapse. Jessica was student council president and head of the cheerleading squad, known for her "million dollar smile." About 1,000 people attended her open-casket funeral.
Nick Frid
That same day, October 2, 2003, three thousand miles north, in Durham, New Hampshire, an undetected heart condition claimed the life of another student athlete. 18-year old Nick Frid, a first-year pre-vet student at the University of New Hampshire, was practicing with the novice crew when he collapsed and died from SCA, which kills an average of 7,000 children a year. "Nick was just a great kid, and we all are devastated," said UNH crew coach and family friend, Pete Cathey. "Nick was the kind of person where you just couldn't wait to see what he'd be like in 20 years, what his kids would be like."
Joseph DiPrete-DiGioia
On October 4, 2003, just two days later, tragedy again struck New England when Joseph DiPrete-DiGioia, a 14-year-old high school freshman from Belfast, Maine, collapsed and died while running through woods in a cross-country meet. When Joseph failed to emerge from the woods at the finish line, his parents notified organizers and an extensive search was mounted. His body was not found until several hours later, hidden in some bushes beside the running trail. " [Joseph] was a bright student and well liked by everybody he hung out with," said Joseph's school principal, Butch Arthers.
Jacob Salter
Six days later, on October 10, 2003, Jacob Salter, an 8-year old from the Washington, D.C. suburb of Centreville, Virginia, collapsed on the sideline during a youth football game. A cardiac nurse began CPR, and Jacob's parents raced to the scene, his father driving his SUV right on to the field, his mother, Annie, arriving moments later. "I kept saying, 'Jacob, mommy loves you, your daddy loves you, don't give up yet, keep fighting, Jacob,'" she said. Jacob was pronounced dead two hours later at a nearby hospital. He suffered from a heart condition called mitral valve prolapse (leaky heart valve), but had been cleared to play by a cardiologist. While Jacob's parents were worried about their son's condition, they said he enjoyed football so much they couldn't bear to keep him from playing. Scott Galloway, commissioner of the Fairfax County league, remembered Jacob as a "sweet little kid." At the end of a memorial service for Jacob on the field where he fell, teammates ran the "flea-flicker" play they had been practicing for Jacob where the quarterback would give him the ball, Jacob would toss it back and then run deep for a touchdown pass. The play went off as planned, with one difference: when the ball was thrown towards the end zone, Jacob wasn't there to catch it.
Osten Gill
On October 15, 2003, five days later, Osten, a 16-year old high school sophomore from Rushford, New York, collapsed on a bus returning from a football game. He had complained of dizziness and nausea after being hit during the game and had been vomiting on the sidelines [13] and on the bus. Osten died at a hospital several hours later. Although the cause of death has not been reported, his symptoms were consistent with head trauma.
Craig Boatwright
The next day, October 16, 2003, tragedy struck the Everman (Tex) High School football team. Less than a year after another player, Corey Fulbright, was paralyzed from the neck down [14] after making a tackle in the Class 3A, Division 1 state championship game, 17-year old senior Craig Boatwright collapsed on the school track as he was nearing the end of a two-mile run to work off a punishment for a team infraction. An assistant coach and trainer performed CPR before Craig was transported by ambulance to nearby Huguley Memorial Medical Center, where he pronounced dead less than an hour later from a previously undetected congenital heart condition. A 6 foot-4, 215-pound defensive end on Everman's two-time defending state championship team, Craig was looking forward to playing for the Texas Christian University "Horned Frogs" after graduation. Well-liked on and off the field (he was a candidate for homecoming king the day after he died), Craig was also a standout shot put and discus thrower. At a memorial service in the school's packed gymnasium, coaches and players remembered Craig for his character (he donated his 2002 championship ring for an auction benefiting Fulbright) and his heart. "Even though they're telling us his heart was injured, those of us who knew him know he had a huge heart," said coach Erik McGuffin. "He had a heart made of gold."
Nicolette Bailey
A day later, on October 17, 2003, Nicolette, a 10-year-old fifth grader from Topeka, Kansas, collapsed and died during a youth basketball game. No details of her death have been reported, but an undetected congenital heart condition resulting in SCA seems the likely cause.
Michael Grimm
The next day, October 18, 2003, Michael, a 5-year-old kindergartner from Lake Oswego, Oregon, collapsed while playing soccer at a park while his father, the team's assistant coach, helped out on a neighboring field. Michael died almost instantly. Preliminary autopsy results were inconclusive, but an undetected heart condition resulting in SCA seems the likely cause. The redheaded boy was described as introspective, loveable, playful and energetic.
Robert Martin
The next day, October 19, 2003, tragedy struck a youth athlete for the fifth time in as many days. Robert "Big Rob" Martin, a 17-year old high school junior from the Philadelphia suburb of Norristown, Pennsylvania, collapsed after playing a game of two-on-two basketball in a neighborhood park and was pronounced dead a short time later at Montgomery Hospital. Like Merridy Stilwell, Rob died from cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle that led to an enlarged heart. The coroner told The Philadelphia Inquirer that it "set him up for sudden cardiac death." A good-natured, talented player described by a former coach as the best he had ever coached, Rob planned to go to college and was preparing to take the SAT. "He was one of the ones that did not drink, didn't sell drugs," a family friend told The Inquirer, a point echoed by Rob's minister, who reminded an overflow crowd of mourners at Siloam Baptist Church that, when Rob died, "there was no alcohol on his breath, no drugs in his system, no gun in his hand, and nothing stolen in his pocket." Willie Richet, deputy chief of the Norristown Police Department, had watched Rob play basketball in the Police Athletic League. "If you ever wanted to find an example of a good kid, this was it," Richet said.
Patrick Geelan
On Saturday, October 18, Patrick, a 16-year old high school junior from Byron, Wisconsin, collapsed with just 15 seconds remaining in a football game after suffering a stroke, apparently the result of an injury to an artery in his neck which caused a blood clot. He was airlifted from St. Agnes Hospital in Fond du Lac to Children's Hospital in Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where, after suffering several more strokes, he was taken off life support and died on October 21, 2003. At 6 foot 3 inches and 280 pounds, Geelan hoped to play one day for the University of Wisconsin "Badgers". He was remembered as a warm, friendly, polite, cheerful, hard-working kid with a "one-of-a-kind personality" and his death sent shock waves through his small farming community. Geelan "was one of the guys who you knew by the first name," said his high school football coach. "When you said 'Pat,' everyone knows who you're talking about. It's unfortunate that Pat was taken away from his family and friends. It's the saddest thing I've ever been a part of."
James Van Slette
Five days later, on October 29, 2003, 14-year old James, a middle linebacker and fullback on the freshman football team at Eisenhower High School in Alsip, Illinois, woke up in the middle of the night, feverish and vomiting [13]. His mother, believing he had the flu, gave him a pain reliever and sent him back to bed. Hours later, Jimmy was found dead, the third youth sports athlete from the Chicago suburbs to die in less than a month. While preliminary autopsy results were inconclusive, Jimmy had suffered at least four concussions [15] in the previous five years, three playing football and one in a May 2003 auto accident. After passing a physical and being given a new special protective football helmet, he was allowed to play, overcoming his parents' concerns. Jimmy had confided to friends - but not to his family or coaches - that he was having severe headaches [13]and might have suffered a fifth concussion in the team's season finale three days before he died. Besides football, James also played baseball and basketball, ran track and planned to join the school's wrestling team.
Little if anything could have been done to save the lives of some of these nineteen athletes, or so it seemed:
While both Kyle Lippo and Osten Gill appeared to have died from brain injuries suffered playing football, neither, as far as it appears from newspaper accounts, had a history of concussions, which might have prompted coaches or doctors to exercise caution before they were allowed to continue playing.
Only two deaths appear at first glance to have been preventable:
Zachary Tran's death, while tragic, should not have happened. Had the soccer goalpost on which Zachary was swinging been secured [12] - as it should have been- he would still be alive. Instead, he became, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, at least the twenty-seventh person to die from a falling goalpost since 1979. Not surprisingly, his parents have since filed a wrongful death action against the park district, soccer association and goal post manufacturer.
Unlike Kyle Lippo and Osten Gill, James Van Slette did have a history of concussions, one so serious that it knocked him unconscious [16]. It is unclear whether he was experiencing any abnormal neurological symptoms [9] before his last game of the season. But, because he did not inform anyone other than his close friends that he was experiencing severe headaches after that game, it is possible that his brain was also injured before the game, placing him at significant risk of a potentially fatal condition called second impact syndrome [17], which occurs when an athlete, after sustaining a head injury such as concussion or cerebral contusion (bruised brain), suffers a second head injury before symptoms associated with the first have cleared. There is also no way to know whether Van Slette's life could have been saved had he told his parents about his headaches. His death, however, tells a cautionary tale, reinforcing a point emphasized by experts that athletes who do not report injuries or who underreport symptoms may be placing themselves at potentially life-threatening risk of brain injury.
Even those athletes who died from SCA, however, might have been saved had an AED [18] been used to shock their erratic heartbeats into a normal rhythm during the critical first few minutes after collapse (survival rates drop 7 to 10% for each minute from collapse to defibrillation):
Whether Justin, Emil, Nick, Jessica, Merridy or any of the others who died from SCA could have been saved had an AED been available when they collapsed, no one will ever know, but AED advocates say having one on hand could have made a difference.
When Rachel Moyer's 15-year old son Greg collapsed in the locker room during halftime of a high school basketball game in rural Pike County, Pennsylvania in December 2000, no AED was available to shock his heart back into a normal rhythm. She responded by starting a fund in his memory that has thus far donated numerous AEDs to schools, fire companies and ambulance corps, local churches, businesses; by training and certifying hundreds of people in CPR and the use of AEDs; by lobbying Congress to pass an AED bill; and by working with her state senator to obtain passage of Pennsylvania's first-in-the-nation law providing every school district in the Commonwealth two free AEDs and the chance to obtain additional units at a discounted price.
Karen Acompora's story is much the same as Rachel's. When her son, Louis, a high school lacrosse goalie from Long Island, New York died in March 2000 from commotio cordis after being struck in the chest by a ball during his first varsity game, Karen set up a foundation in his memory, appeared on "Oprah", and, with Rachel Moyer, helped obtain passage of "Louis's Law," a state law requiring an AED in every public school and at every school-sponsored event in New York.
That the efforts of Moyer and Acompora and many other AED advocates to increase public awareness and availability of AEDs have paid off in lives, not just of student athletes, but of teachers and even fans in the stands, is undeniable. Here are just three recent examples of "saves":
Yet, tragically, even as more and more AEDs are being purchased for schools, lives are still being lost because they are not available when and where they are needed most. While lives were being saved on Long Island because of AEDs bought to comply with Louis's law, lives in New York City were being lost because it had not complied with the law. On Jan. 6, 2003, a 19-year-old student died after he collapsed playing basketball at Harry S. Truman High in the Bronx. The very next day a 16-year-old girl died at a public school for disabled students on Staten Island. Whether an AED would have saved their lives cannot be known. But the response of New York City Mayor, Mike Bloomberg - to order that AEDs be placed in city schools as soon as possible - was no doubt small consolation to the grieving parents of the two students who died.
Nineteen kids. Nineteen lives lost far too soon. Nineteen reasons to do more to make youth sports safer, to educate parents, athletes, coaches and trainers on the warning signs of heat illness and second impact syndrome, to see that AEDs are at every youth sports contest, so that tomorrow, next month, next year, parents aren't left to wonder "what if ...."
Links:
[1] https://www.momsteam.com/node/1401
[2] https://www.momsteam.com/node/2791
[3] https://www.momsteam.com/node/371
[4] https://www.momsteam.com/node/867
[5] https://www.momsteam.com/node/278
[6] https://www.momsteam.com/node/387
[7] https://www.momsteam.com/node/2644
[8] https://www.momsteam.com/node/301
[9] https://www.momsteam.com/node/149
[10] https://www.momsteam.com/node/389
[11] https://www.momsteam.com/node/458
[12] https://www.momsteam.com/node/529
[13] https://www.momsteam.com/node/122
[14] https://www.momsteam.com/node/2672
[15] https://www.momsteam.com/node/156
[16] https://www.momsteam.com/node/150
[17] https://www.momsteam.com/node/208
[18] https://www.momsteam.com/node/297
[19] https://www.momsteam.com/node/388
[20] https://www.momsteam.com/node/846
[21] https://www.momsteam.com/node/117
[22] https://www.momsteam.com/node/112
[23] https://www.momsteam.com/node/1132
[24] mailto:delench@MomsTEAM.com
[25] https://www.momsteam.com/health-safety/cardiac-safety/general/chain-of-survival-for-sudden-cardiac-arrest
[26] https://www.momsteam.com/health-safety/cardiac-safety/general/commotio-cordis-leads-to-sudden-cardiac-arrest
[27] https://www.momsteam.com/health-safety/cardiac-safety/automatic-external-defibrillators-aeds/onsite-placement-of-an-aed-is-critical
[28] https://www.momsteam.com/health-safety/pre-season-heat-acclimatization-guidelines
[29] https://www.momsteam.com/health-safety/detailed-medical-history-important-part-of-sports-physical-PPE
[30] https://www.momsteam.com/health-safety/concussion-safety/general/second-impact-syndrome-signs-and-symptoms
[31] https://www.momsteam.com/health-safety/hydration-safety/heat-stroke-symptoms-treatment
[32] https://www.momsteam.com/sports/football-tackle/safety/why-football-players-at-greater-risk-of-heat-illness
[33] https://www.momsteam.com/health-safety/cardiac-safety/general/how-to-call-911