Apparebtly real-life "geniuses" discoved:

"Several of the nearly 100 young U.S. athletes who die suddenly and unexpectedly during sports every year could be saved through more effective screening for heart problems"

WOW! Now that's what I call "Earth shattering news!" The tone of the article borders on this being "another new epidemic in the USA" and if they get chance, these "headline grabbing idiot reporters will do everything in their power to call it "another PANdemic!"

First of all, the idea that it took "research" to come up with this "tidbit" is beyond absurd.

Second, the article referred to "100 student athletes who die each year?" Not to be "cold-hearted" but let's look at the overall ratios... which they "very conveniently" avoided mentioning?

Example: How many student athletes are there in any average school year?

It is safe to assume that the "total number of student athletes in the USA" exceeds hundreds of thousands... if not millions?

There are about 25 thousand "public high schools in the USA" x (the number of athletes per school) + (additional totals from Private high schools).

How many student athletes die from "crossing the street, home accidents, airplane, skiing, boating, hiking, biking, other illnesses, drug overdoses, auto accidents, alcohol, suicides and simply crossing the street???

Now, compare those student-athlete ratios against the statistics for "non student athletes?"

The ratios based on this article's number of 100 can easily suggest that being a student athlete is a very, very safe place to be.

Understandably, some parents may not have the financial resources to take extra steps to have their child more closely examined and monitored... BUT Many Parents do, so for them, there is "No Excuse" for not taking every possible step to insure your student athlete can handle any rigors of the sport they're playing in!

The typical "liberal solution" is to begin Senate hearings and launch a new government agency to get to the bottom of this massive tragedy."

A common sense response is, "So, just exactly WHAT is the problem?"

(In case you're a LIB or from Rio Linda, sarcasm is intended)

My first cousin died from SCA.  It was horrible.  So when I was having some weird heart stuff  my doctor pulled out a small portable ekg, hooked me up and I was out of there in about 10 minutes.  It was probably less time than an actual physical,  and the regular physicians can read it right there--doesn't take a specialist.   It would be one thing to be against EKGs  if the test they were talking about were extremely costly and invasive but this is really  really simple, I think this should cost less than an annual checkup.

When I worked in internal medicine, we also did physicals for school kids to be able to play sports. Now, they were not alowed to play until the Dr. cleared them. What blew me over were the kids he would see that he heard a heart murmur. He always, in every case, had some additional testing to make sure they were ok. You would not believe how many parents would get mad because he would'nt sign the release form right away. They were more concerned about their kids playing sports right away instead of investigating their health. Alot of heart murmurs are not life threatening but, I think I would like to know first.

I work in this area of medicine, called electrophysiology, that studies rhythm disturbances in the heart. There are actual congenital defects that set young kids up for sudden death. I myself have been treated with ablation for such a defect that caused my heart to randomly race of out control to 220 or more beats per minute! These defects can be seen, in most cases, on a simple 12 Lead ECG. Exercise can, in some cases, trigger these abnormal electrical activities and ultimately result in sudden death. This does not even begin to include murmur's, most of which are benign. Most cases of sudden death are due to abnormal electrical activity in the heart, frequently in the absence of murmurs.

My sons play sports and both had ECG's to make sure their hearts were good and there were no lurking problems before letting them play. Parents, it is critical to have good sports physicals done on your child athletes. Most kids feel just fine before they collapse suddenly and die. Look at all the athletes in the news lately who have dropped dead while participating in sports...you alone can avert this tragedy with your own kids. Get a good 12 Lead ECG done, follow up with your doctor and make sure you follow any recommendations given, including further testing. Better to spend the money on a few preventative tests then your child's funeral.