Two high-profile athletes including 18-year-old basketball player and son of LeBron James, Bronny James, and NFL safety Damar Hamlin both suffered cardiac arrest this year while playing sports. Northeast Ohio cardiologists say incidents like this can also happen to youth athletes.
There’s a wide spectrum of issues that could cause sudden cardiac death, even for seemingly healthy people, said MetroHealth cardiologist Dr. Saima Karim. Many causes fly under the radar.
“There could be inherited syndromes that are not detected or thought about or known through family members very easily,” she said. “That's not something you can see structurally and that may manifest once or twice in that person's life and that's it. Those one-or-two-time events may be fatal.”
About 600,000 people experience cardiac death nationally, said Karim. Sudden cardiac death kills 90% of people who experience it outside of a hospital, largely because the person is not around others when they experience it or those around don’t recognize what’s happening and perform CPR, she said.
“If you train people at a high school level — if they encounter someone down the road — at least they've had training in the past on how to turn off or turn on a defibrillator, how to perform CPR, how to do effective CPR,” said Karim. “This would require some sort of level of supervision and finance nationally. But I think it would be a life-saving event.”
Parents should be aware if they have any family history of heart issues and take precautions, while youth athletes should report if they are having any symptoms, she said.
Many under-resourced communities don’t have AEDs where sports are played, Karim said.
