ORLANDO, Fla. – Sudden cardiac death is the most common cause of death in young athletes. While SCD is still rare, with a chance of one in 200,000 per year, those numbers skew disproportionately among Black athletes, males, and in the sports of football and basketball.
Friday on “Breakfast With Bridgett,” a pediatric cardiologist from Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children discussed why sports screenings for student athletes are so critical to prepare for a fun, safe season.
Dr. Gerson Valencia says screenings save lives by identifying underlying issues before a possible emergency, and the good news is, a diagnosed heart condition doesn’t necessarily count kids out of participating in sports they love.
“Some of the most common things that could be picked up on EKG would be hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. There are other things, it could be something the kid was born with that has not caused any problems throughout their lives that we believe they’re low risk, so even when you detect a condition that could be at a high risk for a sudden cardiac event, it’s more of a shared decision. Nowadays we rarely restrict kids from sports participation. Some kids might need to take a medication to decrease that risk and we do a lot of tests, additional tests like EKG stress tests,” Dr. Valencia explained. “It comes down to a shared decision with the family, coaches, the student, and (seeing) what they really want to do. We don’t want it to be just sitting down and not doing any physical activity throughout the year.”
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Hear more about training and resources to save lives in the event of emergency on the field by watching the full interview at the top of this story.
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