Miami Herald Staff and wire reports
Preventing Sudden Death in Sport and Physical Activity — has three chapters on this subject. One is for student athletes, one for older athletes and one on commotio cordis, death from an otherwise innocuous blow to the sternum. There are chapters on heatstroke, brain injuries, asthma, cervical spine injury and even lightning.
Between 1982 and 2009, there were 756 deaths from all causes among high school and college athletes. The vast majority were high school athletes, many of them football players.
For example, only about half of all high schools have athletic trainers on staff, usually because of budgetary constraints, according to Douglas Casa, who edited the book, though many schools somehow find the money to pay several football coaches.
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As high school football players head back to the fields this August, “that should scare … any parent in America,” Casa said.
In the case of Isaiah Laurencin, the Miramar High offensive lineman who died on Wednesday morning after participating in football drills Tuesday evening, a trainer was not present although the head coach was. Trainers are only required when formal football practices begin, which can’t start before Aug. 8, according to the rules governing Florida high school sports. Laurencin was participating in a workout, not a practice. In a workout, students do not wear helmets and pads, but run drills in shorts and T-shirts.
According to the 911 call, made at 8:08 p.m. last Tuesday, an adult from the back of the school’s parking lot said he had “a player, 17 years of age, black male, who appeared severely dehydrated, having a lot of body cramps” and indicated that Isaiah had been given “Gatorade and water but that he was having problems breathing.”
An autopsy was performed Thursday, but the cause of death remains under investigation, pending test results that aren’t expected for 90 to 120 days. Both school and statewide student athletic officials are investigating what happened and whether changes need to be made to high school athletic policies.
Casa’s organization, the Korey Stringer Institute, says only one state, New Jersey, follows guidelines for acclimating high school athletes after a summer off. The institute was named for the Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman who collapsed and died of heat stroke in 2001.
At the college level, the NCAA only recently began testing for “exertional sickling,” an inherited condition that affects red blood cells and was the leading cause of death among Division I college football players over the past decade. The condition can be linked to exertional rhabdomyolysis, a dangerous breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue found in 13 University of Iowa football players who were hospitalized in January after a strenuous off season workout. Mist cooling fans are great to prevent heat stress! Learn more at
So many of the fatalities were preventable — if adequate preparations had been made and responders reacted appropriately in the first few minutes, the book points out. That includes figuring out what went wrong, even though symptoms of various conditions appear similar.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/29/2340490/new-book-raises-alarm-on-sudden.html#ixzz1Tt821sxK
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