<p>5th high school athlete from the state of North Carolina to die this school year.</p>
<p>[Player</a> is 5th N.C. athlete to die in a year - C Sports - News & Observer](<a href=“http://www.newsobserver.com/723/story/1401647.html]Player”>http://www.newsobserver.com/723/story/1401647.html)</p>
<p>sometimes there is an underlying heart conduction issue, such as long QT syndrome. If the boy never had any symptoms or an EKG, there is no way of knowing when or if it would ever happen.</p>
<p>So sad. The physicians in our town give HS athletes a physical for $10.00 every spring. DD did it when she was a freshman, no problems. She had another one last year. In between she saw her own physician. Last year the doctor detected something off with her heart. He recommended she go for the FREE EKG. It was pretty basic and not complete. They notified her doctor and recommended she come back for a more complete test. She did. A problem was found. We now know she needs to watch it. It didn’t prevent her from competing. She does need to go back this summer for another test to make sure it’s not worse. We know it’s likely she’s had this since birth. </p>
<p>I wish every community could offer these free EKG’s when a problem is detected. I do worry though that she’s had numerous physicals and it was never mentioned until she was almost a hs senior.</p>
<p>My son had two classmates (2 different schools) die on the field (more or less- on life support following the collapse on the football field). It’s pretty horrible.</p>
<p>Our HS is doing free EKG’s next month on every student who has parental permission for the test. It’s funded by a foundation honoring a local young man who died from a hidden cardiac defect. While no screening test is perfect, this could be potentially life saving for some students.</p>
<p>Not to mention an EKG is about as noninvasive as these kind of tests get. The embarrassment of taking your shirt off is way better than finding out the hard way that you’ve got a conduction problem.</p>
<p>There aren’t many high school kids who will agree to stop playing sports, though. Especially if they feel fine and their friends are all playing.</p>
<p>^^^^ Reminds me of Reggie Lewis.</p>
<p>I think if it’s explained as a choice between not playing sports and possibly dropping dead all of a sudden, more of them would.</p>
<p>we had a promising and very fit sophomore soccer player who died in PE after running the mile several years ago. It was awful. People want to look for a culprit and a solution and a way to keep it from happening again but sometimes it is a congenital heart defect that is never picked up until the tragedy .</p>
<p>“I wish every community could offer these free EKG’s when a problem is detected. I do worry though that she’s had numerous physicals and it was never mentioned until she was almost a hs senior.”</p>
<p>The problem is that often these heart problems don’t show up in normal physical exams or sometimes even on a routine EKG. The first symptom is sudden death.</p>
<p>I am a little confused by the thread title. What is the nature of the crisis? Would 4 deaths be a crisis? 2 ? Five deaths during HS athletics is a lot for one state in one year (apparently) but the article does not even suggest that all five developed from similar causes. Rules have been changed to make preseason football training in hot climates less dangerous. (water breaks required) and I believe most states do not permit hs wrestlers to train in rubber suits. </p>
<p>When we read that the deceased was 6’2" and 300 lbs we automatically assume his heart problem was exacerbated by excess weight. But athletes occasionally succumb to heart problems (as do nonathletes). </p>
<p>Much higher on my crisis list is the number of HS kids killing themselves in car accidents. It is a number far greater than 5 per year in NC.</p>
<p>circulatory problems can be really hard to diagnose.
Ive had an EKG and an exercise ECG that were " inconclusive"
they don’t know what is going on.</p>
<p>as long as practices are appropriate and players are not forced to continue when they don’t feel well and they are well hydrated- I don’t know what else they should be doing.</p>
<p>I think in this case and in the case of the football death in Kentucky while there were other factors that played into, the first and foremost issue is likely that of obesity in youth. This kid was MORBIDLY obese. The football player from Kentucky who died of likely heat stroke (no autopsy done) was overweight just under “obese.” </p>
<p>Heart conditions can hit anybody at any age and any weight. But being morbidly obese is going to lead to heart conditions.</p>
<p>My husband’s a pediatric cardiologist, so I figured he’d have some opinions on this topic. 
He says that an EKG in conjunction with a good physical and thorough family history should screen out 95 percent or more of the kids at risk. </p>
<p>Problems he’s noticed with school-sponsored programs: often the parents aren’t present when the history is done, and few kids know whether older relatives died of heart disease. Even when history forms are filled out by a parent, they often aren’t detailed enough. Kids may not want to admit to certain symptoms that could interfere with their ability to play sports. If an adult cardiologist reads the EKG, he/she could miss something that a pediatric cardiologist would see. (Makes sense - I don’t want a pediatric cardiologist reading my EKG.)</p>
<p>Then there’s the whole issue of what constitutes a good physical these days. This has nothing to do with cardiac conditions, but a friend’s d recently saw a new family practice physician following several months of throat problems. The woman did not even ask her to open her mouth - just said, “here’s a script for a scope” and left. I’m generally pro-doc, but there was precious little art of medicine in that interchange. :rolleyes:</p>