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Soccer. Spend $50 to be sure that a kid will not die from a heart attack while playing? Are you out of your mind?
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Please read this very informative article: EKGs might save lives among young athletes By Kavita Mishra and Ilene Lelchuk. (San Francisco Chronicle) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Italy, extensive medical testing of both youth and professional athletes has nearly eliminated cases of sudden death during competition, reducing the number by 90 percent since mandatory screening began in 1982. In the United States, the same kind of advanced testing, involving an electrocardiogram and a heart ultrasound, is required of all pro athletes, but not for youths who play sports. What is expected of young athletes before they take the field varies. Public schools in California and Pop Warner football leagues, for instance, require simple physical exams, but the California Youth Soccer Association North, with 218,000 players in Northern California alone, doesn't require any kind of doctor's examination. Rigorous advanced medical testing may or may not have prevented the death Saturday of a 16-year-old Alameda student during an indoor soccer game with Bladium Sports and Fitness Club, a private organization. By late Monday, the Alameda County coroner had not determined why Ifeanyi Ezeh died. The cause of death may not be known for weeks. Experts say the most common reason for cases of sudden death in athletes in the United States is a pre-existing heart problem or trauma to the chest from forceful contact, like a head-butt or ball, both of which can cause an arrhythmia, or abnormal beating pattern of the heart. Sudden death in young athletes is extremely rare -- resulting in only 300 deaths a year out of an estimated 10 million to 15 million participants in organized sports nationwide -- but the most likely culprit, a genetic defect that can cause the heart to fail without notice, can be found in 1 person out of every 500. One in 250 Italians has a similar heart condition that causes most cases of sudden death in young people there. More than half of the cases of athletes who die while playing in the United States is caused by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease caused by abnormal muscle cells in the heart, said Dr. Michael Crawford, a UCSF cardiologist and member of the American Heart Association's Council on Clinical Cardiology. In Italy, any athlete found to have a heart problem after testing is not allowed to play, a 1982 policy that resulted in a decline in the number of athletes who died during competition, said Dr. David Cannom, a cardiologist at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles and an expert in electrical physiology. In the United States, however, the American Heart Association opposed a proposal earlier this year to recommend electrocardiograms, said Crawford, who was on the committee that made the decision. "We don't have enough of a health care industry to do (EKGs) for the millions of kids doing sports," Crawford said. And, Crawford said, the group concluded the cost would be too high to require an EKG for all athletes. An EKG costs about $50. If it detects abnormal electrical activity in the heart, an ultrasound, or echocardiogram, would follow. That test starts at around $200 to $250, said Cannom, and can run as high as $1,000. About 60 percent of all athletes have abnormal EKGs because of their intense training, and it doesn't indicate a medical problem, said Dr. Euan Ashley, director of Stanford's Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center. So instead of requiring an EKG, the American Heart Association recommends that young athletes review their medical history annually with a medical professional and a physical exam every two years, Crawford said. If in the course of a medical history it is revealed that a sudden death has occurred in the athlete's family or the athlete has developed symptoms, such as fainting, further testing will be done, Crawford said. But Cannom said the current screening practices are inadequate. He said initial screening is often done by providers who are not doctors and do not know how to diagnose murmurs and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies correctly. In many cases, he added, follow-up testing may not be done. He and other experts started the Care Group, which hopes to fund and lobby for EKG testing in all Division I and high school athletes. "Any time one of these deaths come up, it's so heartbreaking," Cannom said. He said that automated external defibrillators on the field and courtside have not been shown to save lives in sudden death cases because they take too long to use. Early screening and treatment, such as internal defibrillators, could prevent the deaths and let athletes with heart conditions play. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which runs in families, can affect individuals in different ways -- some may have symptoms like shortness of breath, fainting or chest pain, others may have no idea of the problem until they fall during physical activity, Ashley said. A malformed protein in heart muscle changes the heart's electrical activity. When a large stress like exercise is put on the muscle, the heart's main chamber beats abnormally until blood can no longer be pushed out to vital organs, such as the brain. "The main pumping chamber just wobbles or fibrillates," Ashley said. Unless a shock from a pacemaker or external defibrillator is rapidly applied to the heart, the heart will continue to fail, he said. By Kavita Mishra and Ilene Lelchuk. (San Francisco Chronicle) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WOW! Spend $50 for an electrocardiogram and a heart ultrasound to be sure that a kid will not die from a heart attack while playing soccer? Are you out of your mind? $50? Do you have any idea how much gasoline we can put in the car for $50? Almost a full tank! So, please, let’s not joke with serious things like money!!! And we (WE) really believe that we live in a civilized country? $50? C’mon! In Italy, THEY (notice that I didn’t write WE) started in 1982, 25 years ago, when Italy was considered a long way from being civilized. Only pizza, mafia and mandolins! Basically what many still believe today! Also please consider that in Italy, there’s will no problem of paying the $50 or the $1000, because ‘that’ country, has a State provided health care for all the inhabitants! So, what’s underlined above, is not only mandatory. It’s FREE! On June 13, I sent this email to the Chairman of CYSA North, Mr. John Murphy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Mr. Murphy, My name is Gianni Mininni and I'm a CYSA licensed D National coach. I've also recently become part of the coaching staff. Considering that you are on my mailing list, probably sometimes you've had the opportunity to see my weekly news letter on Wednesdays from CoachGianni.com. In my weekly news letter of June 27 I'll reprint this article from the Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/12/BAGFJQDMT61.DTL in which there was a clear remark made about the fact that the CYSA doesn't require any kind of doctor's examination for the 218,000 kids who play soccer under the umbrella of the CYSA. I think that it would be great for all of us to have a few words from you about this accusation. I'll publish your words in the same news letter. Hope to hear from you. Coach Gianni Mininni -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the space for his answer! I wrote the 13th and today is the 27th. So it was 2 weeks ago! When I wrote to president Bush (by mail not email), he (or is staff) wrote me back in 6 months! Could 2 weeks be enough for the President of CYSA? Seems not! And besides the fact that I’m a D National CYSA licensed coach and part of CYSA Coaching staff (there are only 140 coaches on the coaching staff in all of Northern California and less than 100 get a D National license every year!), through my weekly news letter his reassuring words could have reached more than 4,600 readers! So imagine if one of the parents of the 218,000 kids who play under the CYSA writes to him! They could die in the mean time, for natural causes, before hoping to have an answer! As you can see below, I can accept almost ANYTHING from readers, except being ignored, which makes me very mad! Coach g. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- P.S. In putting together this issue, my webmaster sent me this email: Hi Gianni, You might be interested to know that I have Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. (The condition you talk about in this newsletter.) I was only diagnosed as an adult after I fainted. I am very lucky nothing serious ever happened to me when I participated in high school sports. Benjamin. |