Last March, an undefeated basketball squad faced a tragic loss, and unfortunately it was not the game. An undefeated season was on the line for the Fennvile Blackhawks, and the whole town was in attendance. The game went into overtime and Wes Leonard was ready for it. Seconds left in overtime, the score was tied again. It was the last play of the game, and Wes Leonard drove to the basket for a lay up, putting them up by two. Time expired and fans rushed the court looking for the hero that made that game winning basket. Seconds later that hero collapsed to the ground. Wes Leonard, a 16 year old healthy boy, died minutes after his dream, a game winning shot, of a cardiac arrest. ( Moisse Sec. 1 Par. 1-3)
What happens when an athlete that is in the best of physical health suffers a sudden cardiac death? The sudden death leaves the community, team, and family shocked and devastated and looking for answers.Whether they are throwing a pitch, shooting the game winning shot, running to the finish line, or making the tackle, an athlete in the United States suffers a sudden cardiac arrest every three days. ( Subasic 18 ) The deaths are rising in sudden cardiac deaths, but not all athletes die each time a cardiac arrest takes place. Each time an athlete suffers a sudden cardiac arrest they don’t all die, but the deaths are rising. Sports related cardiac deaths are very sudden and most scientists do not know why they occur, but researchers are conducting many studies to try to determine the exact cause. Therefore there have been many studies done trying
to determine why athletes suffer sudden cardiac arrest, and although there have been a fair amount of conclusions, none have been clear and strong enough to determine why exactly they occ...
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...sk of sudden cardiac deaths to athletes there. Screening those athletes undergo is very expensive and I do not think it is the way for the United States to handle the sudden increase of sudden cardiac arrests leading to death. One thing that I think that the United States can look into is having a defibrillator on site of any athletic activity. A defibrillator can be used when someone undergoes a sudden cardiac arrest. The defibrillator
will deliver an electric shock to the heart to try to get it to stop the ventricular fibrillation which is when your heart rate increases and does not produce enough blood to the brian or other organs. A defibrillator was used in the case of Wes Leonard, but unfortunately it was not enough. As of right now I do not believe that there is a clear answer that would prevent the sudden cardiac arrests that athletes are suffering.
Weinstock, J., Maron, B., Song, C., Mane, P., Estes III, N. A. M., & Link, M. (2006). Failure of commercially available chest wall protectors to prevent sudden cardiac death induced by chest wall blows in an experimental model of commotio cordis. Pediatrics, 117(4), 656-662.
Terry knew that aches and pains are common in athlete’s lives. At the end of his first year of university there was a new pain in his knee. One morning Terry woke up to see that he could no longer stand up. A week later Terry found out that it was not just an ache he had a malignant tumor; his leg would have to be cut off six inches above the knee. Terry’s doctor told him that he had a chance of living but the odds were fifty to seventy percent. He also said that he should be glad it happened now fore just 2 years ago the chance of living was fifteen percent. The night before his operation a former coach brought Terry a magazine featuring a man who ran a marathon after a similar operation. Terry didn’t want to do something small if he was going to do something he was going to do it big. "I am competitive" Terry said, "I’m a dreamer. I like challenges. I don’t give up. When I decided to do it, I knew it was going to be all out. There was no in between Terry’s sixteen month follow up he saw all the young people suffering and getting weak by the disease. He never forgot what he saw and felt burdened to thoughts that died to run this marathon. He was one of the lucky one in three people to survive in the cancer clinics. Terry wrote asking for sponsorship " I could not leave knowing that these faces and feelings would still be here even though I would be set free of mine, s...
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Effects on Young Athletes Alyssa Trimm 130568370 Wilfrid Laurier University Dr. Kalmar KP 122 Section A
The American Heart Association gives sufficient evidence for the need of change by acknowledging that sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death (2012). These fatalities affect both adult and child victims. Statistics also show that 70% of people feel helpless during a cardia...
Response/CPR – Is the person conscious? Is there any response when you talk to them or squeeze their shoulder? If the person is unconscious and not breathing, have someone call 911 and bring the AED immediately! Meanwhile, place the heel of your hand in the center of the chest and your other hand on top. Press down firmly (counting out loud for 30 compressions). As you tilt the head back gently and lift the chin, blow firmly into their mouth for 2 breaths and then go back to doing compressions – counting out loud to 30 and then 2 more breaths at the rate of five repeats in two minutes. This will continue until another rescuer arrives with the AED and you will change positions. An AED (automated external defibrillator) is a machine that can be found in many public places, and are available for home use. These machines have pads or paddles to place on the chest during a life-threatening emergency. They use computers to automatically check the heart rhythm and give a sudden shock if, and only if, that shock is needed to get the heart back into the right rhythm. The first responder will turn on the AED
The term “failure to rescue” refers to a clinical scenario where hospital doctors, nurses, or caregivers fail to recognize symptoms. Responders do not respond adequately to clinical signs that would prevent harm (Morse, 2008, p.2). Dr. Jeffery H. Silber, Director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, first coined the term “failure to rescue” in the 1990’s. He characterized the matrix of institutional and individual errors that contribute to patient deaths as “failure to rescue” (Aleccia, 2008). Since 1990, it has been well documented patients usually exhibit signs and symptoms of impending cardiac or respiratory arrest 6-8 hours before an arrest (Schein, Hazday, Pena, Ruben, & Spring, 1990). Buist, Bernard, Nguyen, Moore, and Anderson’s (2004) research reported similar findings. They found patients had documented clinically abnormal signs and symptom prior to arrest (Buist, et al., 2004). When certain abnormal signs and symptoms are identified early, critical bedside consultat...
One of the leading causes of death in the United States is heart disease. “Approximately every 29 seconds one American will have a heart attack, and once a minute one American will die from a heart attack” (Ford-Martin and Odle, 915). According to the Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine men over the age of 45 and women over the age of 55 are considered at risk for heart disease. Heart disease is a major cause of death. It is beneficial to individuals who seek to prevent heart disease to recognize the risks leading to heart attacks as they are one of the primary indications of developing heart disease; especially those that fall into the at risk age groups. These risks consist of some that cannot be changed such as heredity risks, or those that can change such as smoking habits. It is very important to know these specific risks for prevention and to understand the symptoms of heart attacks, such as sweating or the feeling of weakness so if these or other symptoms occur people are aware. Finally heart disease treatment is of vital importance if you experience a heart attack so you can learn how to prevent another one from occurring.
This theory supports the practice of viewing and caring for each patient as a total human being, instead of individual parts. It acknowledges that the human being and his/her surrounding environment are as one. The environment affects the thoughts and actions of the individual. If the environment is altered, so will the status of the individual. Possessing a healthy emotional and physical state of health and personal environment is necessary for positive outcomes and goals to be achieved and sustained throughout life. The initiation of bystander CPR depends on the knowledge and skills of the individual and surrounding environment. Acquiring the mental knowledge of the importance of the skill and taking the initiative to learn and initiate the physical technique of CPR is of utmost importance when striving for and increased survival rate of patients who undergo cardiac arrest. Existing in and educating the environment of proper technique and mortality rates can also increase the likelihood of patient
which athletes are being diagnosed early on with CTE. CTE is destroying the lives of many
Athletes have a high percentage of getting injured at all ages. In just the last year “1.3 million children got injures
Many athletes are pressured into using PEDs by coaches or managers and are not thoroughly educated about the harmful health issues that can come along with taking performance-enhancing drugs. A rising issue is whether performance-enhancing drugs should be allowed in professional sports. I believe that in any professional sport, the use of performance-enhancing drugs by athletes should continue to be banned because this rule will help to keep athletes from abusing these harmful drugs. Steroids can seem harmless to the uninformed user, but they actually have harmful side effects. According to the article “News examines relationship between steroids and heart-related deaths,” published by New York Daily News, “The study (presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions in Chicago on Nov. 12, 2006) shows that deaths jumped from 476 from in 1980-1992 to 987 from in 1993-2005.
What you need to know about Cardiopulmonary resuscitation Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR is a technique that is lifesaving and useful in emergencies. You use it when someone quits breathing and or their heart beat has stopped. The American Heart Association states that everyone should begin CPR with chest compressions. The American Heart Association recommends that if you are untrained just do chest compressions (described later). If trained, begin with chest compressions instead of checking the airway and starting with rescue breathing.
Healthcare professionals in the hospital settings has been recommended in cardiac arrest (CA) patients since the publication of two randomized clinical trials in 2002, the results of which demonstrated a significant improvement in neurologically intact survival for comatose CA patients presenting with ventricular fibrillation (VF) or ventricular tachycardia (VT) Current guidelines suggest that mild therapeutic hypothermia should also be considered in patients presenting with other rhythms although this has been less well studied.
Sudden cardiac death in young athletes was first reported in 1980s and defined as cardiovascular event that occurred during physical activity or within hours of physical activity without awareness of underlying cardiac abnormalities. (Subasic p.18) As the years have gone by, sudden cardiac deaths have occurred more frequently then in the 1980s. Scientists have been researching why exactly athletes suffer from cardiac arrest, and still most scientists haven’t found a clear and direct reason on why they occur. Although initially reported in the United States in the early 1980s, the causes of sudden death in ...
One Friday night some friends and I decided to attend our high school's football game. Upon arriving, the stadium was already covered with overjoyed, and exciting fans. During the game, there was excited chattering about the party. Everyone was talking about going. Finally, the game was in the last seconds of the fourth quarter,a nd oru team was winning. The crowd was all fired up. When the game endend, everyone stampeded to theri cars and headed to the party leaving the once filled stadium deserted.