It is the leading cause of death among youth athletes. It happens once every three or four days. In 80 percent of those cases the athletes show no symptoms or warning that they could die. This leading cause of death is sudden cardiac arrest. When an athlete goes into cardiac arrest they have only minutes until they face a certain death. Even with urgent treatment, such as, Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation or the use of a defibrillator, only 11 percent of athletes who go into cardiac arrest survive. However, given those statistics only 1/200,000 athletes are likely to go into sudden cardiac arrest.
As an athlete sudden cardiac arrest is something that I may not think about often but it doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen to me. If I, or someone I know, went into cardiac arrest I would want every resource available to give me a chance to survive. I strongly believe that every middle school, high school and college should be required to have a defibrillator and someone trained to use a defibrillator at every sporting event. Some health care professionals suggest that competitive athletes should be tested for heart disease before being allowed to compete because a majority of the sudden cardiac arrest deaths are due to a genetic disease and could be prevented.
Requiring a defibrillator at sporting events or athletes to be screened for heart disease before competitive play are rather inexpensive and non-invasive measures that could keep more athletes alive. Do you believe that there should be more guidelines set in place to protect athletes and prevent them from possible death?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/05/earlyshow/health/main2650308.shtml
As a sports medicine major, I am required to take a course called Acute & Emergency Care. I am just wrapping up this half semester course in which we learn how to handle emergency situations on the playing field and off. The lab part of the course teaches us basic CPR and first aid skills that we must know before going on to pursue a career as an athletic trainer, physical therapist, or strength & conditioning coach. In the last few weeks of lab we learned how to properly use an AED.
ReplyDeleteBefore the course, I was uneducated about AEDs and their usage and importance on the field. After learning how to correctly use this machine, I understand how essential they are to any athletic program. Cardiac emergencies require immediate care, first aid, and waiting for emergency medical services, EMS, to arrive will not help the victim in any way.
The National Athletic Trainer's Association (NATA) Position Statement establishes a set of guidelines that are supposed to be followed on all athletic fields. These guidelines encourage the prescence of an AED on all athletic playing fields and require that athletic trainers be skilled in adminstering an AED correctly. I believe that all high schools and colleges should be required to follow NATA guidelines and have an AED present in all athletic facilities.
In response to the original post, I think that defibs. are actually very expensive, especially portable ones. Though I totally agree with the idea to have one at each game, there would have to be some sort of monetary budget or funding in order to get it there. CPR can often be very ineffective with out an AED which is why it is vital to have one if someone goes into cardiac arrest.
ReplyDeleteAs far as athletic screening goes, I think that athletes should be required to have pre-season physicals and check-ups. No physical performed by a Doctor should equal NO PLAYING! This will alleviate some of the liability that may fall on a coach if there is a medical emergency.
I agree that defibs are very expensive but very important to have at sporting events. In many cases though, in big sporting events, there is an ambulance there waiting in case someone gets hurt. They are very equipt to take care of anyone that goes into cardiac arrest. I think its expensive to have them there but very worth it in the end if someone gets hurt. At my highschool, during one of the football practices, it was extremly hot out and one of the kids went into cardiac arrest. The ambulance came, and he was saved. He was, however, in the hospital for awhile. It was very scary to see such a young kid in the hospital with heart problems becuase it doesn't happen often.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there should be pre-screening. But that is why athletes are required to get routine physicals from their doctors in order to play. But there are always freak accidents that happen and those can not always be detected by just a routine physical. This is why I believe there should always be someone or something there to help someone in a case of an emergency. This is complicated and expensive so the reality of their always being protection is rare. So we all just have to be careful.
I say, why not? Even if a defibrillator is relatively expensive, there's no way it would be at a price range that could fall outside of a high school or college's budget.
ReplyDeleteThere really is no excuse not to have one.
Still, the question of what kind of guidelines we should have is a lot more complicated than asking whether or not schools should have more defibrilators at hand.
What about the rules of the sports themselves? Should we have more protective helmets for Football players to guard against brain damage, for instance?
Ideally, we'd like to get rid of any chance of serious injury in more physical sports. And the only way that could be achieved, in actuality, is by changing the sports themselves.
Can you imagine high school football being two-hand touch? Or checking an illegal maneuver in college hockey?
Yikes.
There's a line to draw here.
Life is filled with unfortunate happenstances. You could die reading this from a sudden heart attack. Heck, I could go brain dead before finishing this sentence.
While I think it's important that we continue to progress in the realm of safety guidelines, we have to remind ourselves not to take the life out of life or the life out of sports. No matter what, athletes will always face unfortunate circumstances.
So, yeah, go the extra mile and institute a rule where all coaches must know CPR and first aid. Those cautions which don't have to alter the sport are the ones worth taking.
I agree with these posts that, while defibrillators are expensive they are worth the money. In tough economic times I can see why many people don't want to spend extra money on a machine that may never be used. However, I was trained to use this machine and in the event that someone was in cardiac arrest, it would be worth every cent. I for one believe that saving a potential life, is more important than the money. I was amazed to find out this past summer when working at summer camps as a camp counselor, that not all teachers are first aid certified. Shouldn't all coaches and teachers have the knowledge to save their students or players. Every teacher and coach should be required in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAs the previous post said, we are faced with the option of death everyday and while it is scary and we should do all we can to prevent it fluke accidents happen everyday. These fluke accidents are out of our control in most instances but if having a life saving machine saved one life then I don't think cost should be an issue.
I also agree that AED’s should be required on sporting fields of all aged sports. My father being an EMT, has always had a strong opinion on this subject because he has been called to situations where an athlete went into cardiac arrest and was not able to survive due to inadequate tools the trainers are given. For most schools with athletic trainers, it is the school that provides all safety equipment, not the trainers themselves. Schools should be required to provide AED’s because plain and simply, they save lives. They are definitely an essential that is used on athletes, who have many valuable years to live ahead of them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kathryn. I think in the competitive field of high school, college and professional athletics in modern times has led to the poor prioritizing of programs. My brother played division one football at a major college. In their pursuit for the win, they overlooked concussions that he had sustained in order to put their best players on the field. As a result, he was hit by one major concussion, ending his college and future NFL career. These athletic programs need to start concentrating on the health of the players, and less on the win. No, its not exactly likely that every game a player is going to drop dead, but athletes need to have more attention paid to their health without an agenda. Many athletic trainers are pressured by the obligation to the people who sign their checks- and because of that, they overlook possibly dangerous injuries and allow them to play. Athletes need to at the very least be screened for heart disease beforehand. They already need physicals and this is an inexpensive way to protect our athletes.
ReplyDeleteI do not see any reason why schools should not take these precautionary steps. Like you said it is inexpensive and can literally save the lives of these athletes. Although rare, we need to be prepared for when something like this springs up. It is astonishing that only 11 percent of the athletes who go into cardiac arrest actually survive. AED's should definitly be required.
ReplyDeleteI believe that every high school and college should take these precautionary steps. Whether or not it is expensive, it could save the lives of many athletes. In response to the post above about how athletes can die in many other ways, I can not disagree with that, being an athlete myself but the chances of death by cardiac arrest are much higher than the chance of death by receiving a huge hit in football. Anything that can be done to make sports more safe without taking away from the actual sports, are precautions that need to be made and therefor, AED's should be a requirement and school's and professional organizations need to take more caution when it comes to the health of their athletes as well but you also have to see it from an athletes stand point; no athlete wants to miss a big game because of something that we would consider minor like a concussion or hairline fracture.. it is just as much of the athletes responsibility for their health as it is the EMT's and doctor's of the athletic programs.
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