Athletes by definition are model examples of what the human form should be. Despite athlete’s physical prowess, many have undetected heart issues that have caused a surprising number of deaths.
Cardiologists, representatives from professional sport leagues, athletic trainers and more will gather later this month in Washington, D.C., to brainstorm and discuss how to better protect the hearts of athletes, particularly among youth athletes.
Millions of Americans participate in competitive and recreational sports, but currently there is no set of standardized guidelines to address the cardiac issues faced by athletes of different conditioning and age. For example, presently, a college basketball player may receive the same medical advice as an amateur 60-year-old runner. Feleica Stewart believes better standards may have saved her son’s life.
Exhibiting no signs of heart disease, John Stewart, a basketball star at Lawrence North High School, was playing during a March Madness basketball tournament. He called a timeout, sat on the bench and collapsed into his coach’s arms.
The mother recalls seeing him lying on the floor.
“I felt helpless,” said Stewart, who is a registered nurse. “No matter what I learned in school, there was nothing I could really do.”
“The ambulance took forever to get there and there also wasn’t an automated external defibrillator machine. I don’t know if that would have saved him, but they may have been able to work on him much quicker.”
On March 12, 1999, John died of a congenital form of idiopathic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Later that year, he had been expected to play basketball for the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Richard Kovacs, clinical professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine and the co-chair of the sports and exercise cardiology council for the American College of Cardiology said that annually there are about 100 tragedies in the U.S. involving the sudden death of athletes, oftentimes during competition.
He said there are a variety of heart conditions that can lead to death, however many of them are genetic. The most common causes are HCM, an abnormal thickening of the heart muscle; an enlarged aorta that ruptures; and abnormal coronary arteries.
“Some will be picked up by a routine physical examination, but many are not,” said Kovacs.
He went on to say that the American Heart Association has athletic screening recommendations, but oftentimes sports physicals cover the basics. This is primarily seen in youth screenings.
“We don’t know the proportions so it’s a little hard to track. And who knows if these physicals are done in a gym with kids roaming around and a lot of noise where the doctor might not hear a heart murmur or if it’s done in a quiet controlled environment,” said Kovacs.
The risk of death decreases depending on the player and the type of sport on the collegiate and professional level. Furthermore, professional athletic teams have access to top notch health care so death due to a heart condition is rare.
Kovacs said it is also unclear if a heart condition or death would occur had an athlete not been playing a sport at a high level. Not only has the American athlete changed tremendously over time, but the obesity epidemic is causing people to get moving leading health experts to look at the “athlete” a bit more broadly.
To help understand heart conditions among athletes, Kovacs is joining other health and athletic experts for the inaugural Sports & Exercise Cardiology Think Tank, which will accompany the Sports Cardiology Summit Oct. 19-20. The event is sponsored and co-led by Indiana University Health Cardiovascular and the American College of Cardiology Foundation.
In addition to discuss what experts know and don’t know about this subject, they’d like to also discover how to better manage athletes and find out when it’s safe to participate in physical activity following a cardiac problem.
Feleica Stewart is excited about the summit. She said that prior to her son’s death, no child in Indiana had been screened for heart issues. To help prevent additional youth athletes from dying, she created the John Stewart Foundation. The foundation is supported by Dr. Michael French, a retired neurologist; Dr. Virginia Caine, director of the Marion County Health Department; and Tubby Smith, men’s head basketball coach at the University of Minnesota among others.
The John Stewart Foundation’s objective is to provide EKG/ECHO screenings in high schools, work to put automated external defibrillator machines into schools and teach kids how to be first responders by using CPR.
Feleica Stewart was invited to the summit and hopes to share her son’s story and offer support to others fighting to save athletes from harm.
“There’s a young boy named Knicholas Brittain who is dealing with the disease my son died of. (I’m so proud of him because) he’s championing for heart disease,” said Stewart.
Kovacs doesn’t believe that at the conclusion of the summit, standards will be put in place, but what he does believe will be accomplished, is raised awareness of the issue and aligning groups who share this interest.
In the meantime, he suggests people get adequate physicals; know their family history; pay attention to symptoms like being short of breath, fainting or heart palpitations; and encourage efforts like the John Stewart Foundation.
