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TagsBY LISA LaVALLE-FINAN
FOR NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Sending our kids off to play sports because it’s good for them to be active might be the right thing to do, but are we sending them off safely?
To determine what’s killing our young high school athletes could be as easy as a knowing your family history and conducting a pre-screening to detect cardiac irregularities, like a heart murmur. The recent cluster of deaths in young athletes -- roughly one a month in our region alone -- demands our attention. Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) accounts for 40 percent of all deaths on athletic playing fields across the country.
World experts will be meeting in Florham Park NJ May 29-31, 2009 to discuss HCM, its treatments and the role of pre- participation screening. To learn more visit www.4HCM.org* May 1 -- Kittim Sherrod of Edison High School died yesterday during track practice.
* April 8 -- Ian Artola a 14-year old of Jersey City boy collapsed and died while sparring in an unsupervised boxing match.
* March 08 -- Sharif Abdallah, a 17-year old Brooklyn teen died defending a friend.
* February 25 -- Corey Stark, a 17-year old East Hampton rugby player died while warming up (confirmed HCM).
* February 10 -- Michael Ramos, a 17-year-old Passaic County Technical Institute died suddenly while lifting weights (suspected HCM, awaiting final confirmation).
"We need parents, coaches, and athletes to be more aware of sudden cardiac arrest in young kids, especially in athletics, and to be prepared when it occurs," said Lisa Salberg, CEO and Founder of the www.4HCM.org. "Obviously, we're not doing a good enough job."
What is HCM?
HCM is a genetic disease which results in a thickening of the heart muscle and is the leading cause of sudden death in children and young adults. While these young men have many things in common, the most unfortunate is that they all died needlessly from HCM, but if properly diagnosed, it’s treatable. It is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death among young athletes; both professional and amateur. HCM accounts for 40 percent of all deaths on athletic playing fields across the country.
One in five hundred north Americans have HCM and it can be detected and treated allowing patients to live long lives. HCM is a not an uncommon heart disease. HCM is nearly seven times more common than Cystic Fibrosis. Each year, over 1600 Americans will die from HCM. Over fifty percent will be under the age of fifty four.
Symptoms
There is no particular symptom or complaint which is unique to HCM and symptoms may occur at any stage in a person's life, even though the condition may have been present for some time. The reason for the onset of symptoms is often not clear. However, they include shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitations, light-headedness and blackouts. The most commonly seen misdiagnosis is asthma, specifically “athletically induced asthma” as a first sign or symptom. This is likely due to transient shortness of breath often seen in HCM. Unfortunately, in some instances, the first symptom may be sudden cardiac arrest.
HCMA Message
* Create awareness about Sudden Cardiac Arrest in our youth.
* Communicate a better understanding about HCM to coaches and athletic directors.
* Encourage families to know their family health history.
* Investigate the HCM mimickers such as fatigue, depression, anxiety, asthma, or an innocent murmur.
* Prepare with emergency action planning including AED placement.
HCMA is a not for profit 501(c) (3) organization formed in 1996 to provide information, support and advocacy to patients, their families and medical providers. The HCMA is structured with medical advisors governing all of the medical content provided by the HCMA and a Board of Director governing the day-to-day operations and growth. The HCMA is supported by grants and donations. Lead Medical Advisor is Dr. Barry J. Maron of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation.
Lisa Salberg, CEO and Founder of the HCMA and co-author of HCM: For Patients, Their Families, and Interested Physicians is also a patient. She has been able to trace the disease in her family for at least four generations -- including her grandfather, her uncle, an aunt, her father and her sister – and has been an advocate for patient screening and improving and saving the lives of those with HCM since 1996. For more information about The Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association log on to www.4hcm.org.
Lisa La Valle-Finan is a writer and the Creative Director of getGlobalized™. She’s been traveling and writing for 25 years, speaks French, Italian and Greek, and welcomes all comments and can be reached at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. More information can be found on the company’s website at www.getGlobalized.org.
