High School Athlete's Death: Preventable or Not?

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Superbob

Superbob

Steely Resolve!
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Apr 21, 2005
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It was certainly a shocking scene and horrible loss for friends and family of Wes Leonard, the 16-year-old star athlete who had just scored the winning basket before collapsing on the basketball court. One minute triumph, the next minute tragedy.

Undoubtedly we will be hearing more about this sad story, but the first stories indicate the cause of death may have been cardiac arrest due to an enlarged heart. More specifics may follow.

http://blogs.webmd.com/breaking-new...-star-wes-leonard-dies-of-enlarged-heart.html

You wonder if this kind of condition could have been detected with a thorough heart workup with imagining. The average sports physical: probably not. However, there often are no symptoms going on, and no reason to suspect a highly conditioned young athlete is vulnerable, and how could anyone justify the cost of echos, CT-Scans, MRIs, etc for the hundreds of thousands of kids in school sports?

I don't pretend to have any of these answers. I just feel so sorry for the Leonard family, his coaches, his many friends, the whole community.

From this terribly sad story, there is also cause for reflection on how fortunate we are to have had our heart conditions diagnosed, and to have medical science on our side to help us enjoy longer, fuller life.
 
Hey Superbob, good timing on this thread!

Ironically prior to swimming yesterday, I was chatting with one of my long time swim mates, he stated he was diagnosed with an enlarged heart. Jeff spent his entire youth and early adult years as a competitive swimmer. Get this, he also smoked for 25 years! Jeff would win a meet and then go outside and light up. Jeff no longer smokes but still swims. He has just excepted the fact that his heart will simply fail one day.

Jeff has had a CT scan, I question if the CT measures the valve openings. I told Jeff that if I was him, I'd go and have an echocardiogram done to rule out a narrowed valve, which obviously would cause hypertrophy of a ventricle.

Is their anything else Jeff can do to diagnose and correct an enlarged heart condition?
 
Bob:

It is a tragedy.
I'm not sure what could have detected this condition and saved this young man's life. I'm sure that parents would balk -- understandably so -- at having to pay extra for additional tests for young athletes. At the very least, some type of chest X-ray would have shown the outline of the heart and tipped off physicians and coaches.
One source I saw stated that about 30% of HCM/DCM cases is genetic.

I eat breakfast almost every workday at a cafe. A group of us have been doing this for several+ years and sit in a back room where we can talk about a lot of things, over our newspapers, magazines, etc.
We recently discussed genetics and that most people don't have family health history or track illnesses. They never connect the dots. Unless there are significant health issues, most people do not have genetic testing before marrying/starting families, due to cost or because they just don't want to know.
 
bdryer said:
Hey Superbob, good timing on this thread!

Ironically prior to swimming yesterday, I was chatting with one of my long time swim mates, he stated he was diagnosed with an enlarged heart. Jeff spent his entire youth and early adult years as a competitive swimmer. Get this, he also smoked for 25 years! Jeff would win a meet and then go outside and light up. Jeff no longer smokes but still swims. He has just excepted the fact that his heart will simply fail one day.

Jeff has had a CT scan, I question if the CT measures the valve openings. I told Jeff that if I was him, I'd go and have an echocardiogram done to rule out a narrowed valve, which obviously would cause hypertrophy of a ventricle.

Is their anything else Jeff can do to diagnose and correct an enlarged heart condition?
Click to expand...

I have had regular echocardiograms (which seem to be helpful but not all that exact) and CT-Scans, which seem to tell a more complete story. Others have spoken of cardiac MRIs. I am no expert -- maybe someone will come along and provide more information.

I think rather than just accepting that his heart will fail one day, your friend ought to consider the possibility that the condition could be corrected. (Or maybe he has, if he's had a CT scan.)
 
I agree Superbob. He should not accept he has an enlarged heart. Something has to be causing the enlarged heart. Jeff, [no not jeff from edmonton jeff], I'm going to ride him today when I see him during our swim time, to go and see a cardiologist. Regardless of having a one time CT scan. May as well look at the problem with all available research.
 
bdryer said:
I agree Superbob. He should not accept he has an enlarged heart. Something has to be causing the enlarged heart. Jeff, [no not jeff from edmonton jeff], I'm going to ride him today when I see him during our swim time, to go and see a cardiologist. Regardless of having a one time CT scan. May as well look at the problem with all available research.
Click to expand...

Good luck!
 
That is such a tragic story. It will affect everyone who knew him; everyone who was there! Oh, so very, very sad. And in high school. Awful. Oregon just lost a wrestler (the same day as the Barbara Walters special on Heart surgery) for the same reason.

I wonder whether our society's super status of athletes plays a role, too. The science behind stronger athletes (even without steroids) is so rampant that the willingness to push and be pushed at that age is tremendous.

Somehow we need to get pediatric screenings to be part of a routine physical; athletic or not.

Oh, and bdryer, as to your swimming friend. Kick his butt! I remember talking to some faceless woman on the phone with health insurance customer service. She just started talking real non-chalantly about how she had the same condition as I did but wasn't doing anything about it. Man, I rode her for 15 minutes. I made her promise me, promise! to take care of it for her family's sake and not be so selfish!! Don't be shy. Better to risk a friendship than to actually lose the friend! Go for it.

Marguerite
 
bob, I have to wonder if he could have been saved with a defib there is a movement here that legislation be passed that portable units become as common as fire extingusihers in public buildings starting with arenas and stadiums

During the olympics in Vancouver they were at MULTIPLE locations in every venue and facility ....that density was overkill and they are now being redistributed throughout the country courtesy of 'Vanoc 2010' the corporation set up to oversee the Olympics

These units "talk" the user through the steps and are easy to use
 
We have a pediatric cardiology group who does an ekg for children and teens for $10. I had it done for all three of my girls as they are all athletes. They all had very normal ekgs and he spent a very long time questioning them and listening to their hearts to try to make sure they didn't have a problem. Obviously an ekg won't catch everything but I thought it was a nice service for the price. I was especially happy he spent the extra time with my girls because of my heart problems.
 
superbob said:
greg, if i understand correctly what the doctor suggested at the end of this news report, a defib on site might have saved the young man. Of course, the doc was speculating, but it's something to think about.


http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-1574...s-teen-basketball-player-wes-leonard-24415802
Click to expand...

this is what i mentioned

vancouver won in more ways than one by hosting the olympic games in 2010. More than 200 community groups, aboriginal communities, search-and-rescue organizations, ski patrols, hockey leagues, schools and non-profit groups have received surplus automated external defibrillators (aeds) that were used during the vancouver 2010 olympics and paralympics.

Nearly 350 groups across canada applied for the machines, and more than 200 will be refurbished and distributed to the groups, according to shelley parker, a spokeswoman for medtronic, of which physio-control, makers of the aeds, is a subsidiary.

Metronic had loaned the vancouver organizing committee for the 2010 olympic and paralympic winter games (vanoc) nearly 300 machines, including updated models that were used in hospitals or polyclinic settings. Medtronic agreed to the $2 million donation as part of its involvement as a "friend of the games," according to mike wilkinson, md, vanoc's chief medical officer.

A number of units that included monitoring devices and require a trained physician will also be delivered to sports development programs, university cardiac rehabilitation facilities and teaching institutions.

Most of the aeds are meant to be located in high-visibility public locations like arenas, community centers and schools, and are meant for use by untrained people who witness someone going into cardiac arrest, said parker.
Click to expand...
 
To answer the thread's question, absolutely! This particular person's death was preventable by an echo or ekg. He had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is an enlarging and dilation of the heart's ventricles. Many times this disease is what they refer to as "idiopathic" meaning there's no known cause. Even though there's no known cause, there would've been a few different treatment and prevention options that could've kept him from dying so soon - IF he'd had an echocardiogram or even a simple EKG to diagnose the hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

The main reason cited for not screening a young athlete is cost and burden on the system versus benefit. I think we should ask his parents if the costs outweight the benefit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiomyopathy
 
My opinion. The trouble is that hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is rare enough that some doctors may not know how to spot it or distinguish it from "athletes heart." There are other deadly heart conditions that are found in young people that are impossible to detect with a resting EKG or Echo.

When I was in my 20s I complained of heart palpitations and near syncope. I had numerous EKGs and Echoes at various Dr Offices, but was told time and time again during that period that my palpitations were normal and harmless. I went on to have 3 events of cardiac arrest (so far).
 
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