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Sunday, June 1, 2008
The ‘heart’ of the matter
Central Indiana, IN
By: Bill Benner
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Photo(s) By: Kyle Danztler/MyActionPortraits.com
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The longest, worst and most gut-wrenching night of my newspaper sports writing career occurred on March 12, 1999.
I had gone to write a column on a high school basketball game between No. 1-ranked Bloomington South and No. 2 Lawrence North in the Columbus Regional.
The gymnasium at Columbus North was packed – standing room only – and the game was evolving into the potential classic everyone had anticipated.
Then, with two minutes remaining in the third quarter, Lawrence North’s talented 7-foot center John Stewart – a Mr. Basketball candidate who already had signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Kentucky the following year – asked to be taken out of the game after scoring his team’s first 10 points of the second half.
He told coach Jack Keefer he was having trouble breathing.
Within moments after sitting, Stewart collapsed onto his side. Play stopped and there was frantic motion on the LN bench. Physicians in the crowd were summoned. Within minutes, Stewart was rushed from the gym to a nearby hospital. An hour or so later, the worst news was confirmed. Stewart had died of sudden cardiac arrest due to an enlarged heart – or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
My fellow High School Sports – The Magazine contributor Mike Beas also was there for The Indianapolis Star that night. That tragic turn of events transformed both of us from sports writers to hard news writers for the evening.
It was something I hope to never, ever experience again.
Stewart’s highly publicized death kicked off a campaign for more and better screening of young athletes so that potentially dangerous, pre-existing heart conditions might be identified. Indeed, those “echo” screens – echocardiograms – are far more common now, though there is some debate in the medical community whether too few athletes with possible heart issues make the testing economically feasible.
To which I say, isn’t just one life worth saving?
Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) still occurs. So much so, in fact, that the New England Journal of Medicine has stated it is the leading cause of death among high school athletes in the country.
In Indiana, fortunately, there is a movement taking place that could react to SCA and prevent the worst – death – from happening. It’s a program called Reviving Hearts, and it’s a collaboration of the Cardiovascular Research and Education Foundation of Indiana (CREFI) and The Care Group, which is a statewide network of cardiologists and primary care providers.
Their goal: to place more than 400 automated electronic defibrillators (AEDs) into Indiana high schools over the next five years.
Of course, anyone who watches “ER” or any of the medical shows on television is probably aware of the AEDs, the battery powered devices with paddles designed to deliver an electric shock to the heart.
According to literature distributed by Surviving Hearts, AEDs “can increase the survival rate for (Sudden Cardiac Arrest) by up to 90 percent by delivering a shock within the first few minutes of the attack.”
More importantly, the Reviving Hearts program is not just aimed at athletes, but the thousands of adults and children who use high schools for activities throughout the year.
“High schools tend to be community centers,” says Margie Bryan, spokesperson for Reviving Hearts.
Bryan says the cost of a single AED is $2,500 but that includes not only the installation, but the training of personnel who can administer an AED in case of emergency.
To help schools defray that cost, four sponsors have come on board: Fifth Third Bank, Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent, the St. Vincent Heart Center of Indiana and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Indiana.
Reviving Hearts already has placed four AEDs at Hamilton Southeastern, Chatard, Heritage Christian and Broad Ripple high schools.
Schools wanting to apply for AEDs should go to www.cardiofoundation.org.
If your school system does not have an AED, I beg you to beg them to obtain at least one.
It could save a life.
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