Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Heart attacks waiting to happen...

A local freshman football player passed away from a heart defect that could have been prevented. He is not the only one that I know to have had this occur. One of my class mates passed out while running on the track and died later due to a tear in his heart that no one knew about. Often Ihear about these sad deaths that could have been prevented if the physicals they get only checked for these conditions. I want to start a petition to make these heart checks standard on physicals because I believe we can save these kids from heart failure before its too late. Wha t do you think the obsticles would be? My belief is that it would cost too much. I am going to research though because I strongly believe it is something that needs to be rectified now.

12 comments:

ShawndelB said...

Hi Michelle,

I agree that physical are manatory and I agree that the cost would be on of the obsticles that would prevent this from happpening,but you get the petition rolling and I will sign it.

Anonymous said...

This was such a sad story and it's not the first time I've heard of something like it. I think physicals should be mandatory as well. If the schools can't afford it then parents should be paying for them. It's worth the $100 or whatever it is to make sure your child isn't going to fall over dead at a practice. It's so sad to see something like that happen when it's completely preventable! I'm not positive but I think at my high school to play any sport you did have to bring in proof of a recent physical. I think that should be the standard everywhere.

Kelly Layman said...

I cant understand why someone hasnt already made it a law or a requirement to have these tests done. However, you are probably right about the cost issue.

Jared M said...

I have heard a few different stories about young athletes dying of heart conditions. I think that a heart test should be included in a physical. Schools should not be worried about the cost, you can't put a price on safety and health. Maybe, if the schools can't afford it, the government should help pay some. The government has plenty of money. Either way, to help prevent young student athletes from injury or even death, a heart test should be a required part of a physical.

Anonymous said...

I thought that physicals were mandatory. I know when I played sports they were. A EKG is needed to find those sorts of heart problems and they aren't mandatory. But I have also heard of coaches pushing kids into heat stroke. It is increadibly sad and unfortuante.

Andrew Lockwood said...

Wait, they aren't mandatory? Back when I was into sports, I thought the whole time they were. Yea, physicals should be mandatory, shouldn't have someone not even in the right health condition able to play...

amanda said...

My 11 yaer old brought home an article from his school the other day about this. This is an undetected heart disease that some of these children have. They say even physicals can't detect it. But, they do have some kind of exam that children can take to detect this type of heart disease. Unfortunately, the cost of the exam is $950.00 - $1500.00, and insurance will not pay for it. The high school in the town I live in is doing a thing today(9-22) where the parents can take their children to have this exam done. Their only charging $58.00 per child to do this. I'm not sure how all this came about as far as only charging such a low price. But, I truly think that, that is what we all need to do is figure out ways all the towns can offer this to the children. Although it is a very serious thing that could happen to any one of our own kids.

DeaZ said...

I thought physicals were manditory. I see why stories like this are heard far too often. My school couldn' afford physicals a couple of years and we had to pay for them either out of pocket or through insurance. Let me know when you start the petition.

carla Hackney said...

I agree that it should be made part of a physical, however; those problems are usually detected from more advanced testing and only on people who have lodged a complaint dealing with the heart.I am 30 and just got diagnosed with a heart murmur and heart disease, my doctor state that if it was caught earlier preventive measures could have been taken. I never had signs before trying out for the police academy.

Rocheal said...

What would the test be? How do they do it?

Michelle B. said...

ok physicals are required but the heart test that I am talking about is not. I want a cat scan of some sort that would detect these problems in the heart such as tears to be manditory.

Hiren Patel said...

We had to take physicals every year in my school, but problem was we have 100 people at a time going to the assembly to take them, so the people giving them obiously could not do a good job of what they were doing, as a matter of fact they would just tell u to come up and initial the paper and move to the next step, on some things we would'ent even be tested. I think to solve the problem high schools should require families to go get a proper one done every year before school starts.