Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
Copyright 2006 The Austin American-Statesman
All Rights Reserved
In Central Texas, the emphasis on the health of young athletes — and band members in some school districts — has come at a high price.
The Austin area now offers free heart screenings for varsity athletes and band members. Football games include ambulances on hand or on call, and heart defibrillators are standard equipment on the sidelines in most local school districts.
All for good reason. Central Texas schools have suffered shocking experiences of athletes and band members dying or being seriously injured on the field. But for the fortunate and fast reactions of physicians in the stands last Friday night in College Station, Westlake star tackle Matt Nader might well have been another victim.
Nader had a heart arrhythmia and collapsed during a game with A&M Consolidated High School, and he could have died. Quick reactions by his parents, both physicians, and Dr. Paul Tucker, a heart specialist whose son plays for the Chaparrals, saved Nader’s life.
Of course, the incident sparked dark jokes about playing for a team from the suburbs where the sons and daughters of the best doctors presumably attend high school. But the fact is that the defibrillator on the sidelines probably did as much to save Nader’s life as anything.
Automated external defbrillators are now standard equipment at varsity games in Eanes (Westlake), Austin, Round Rock and other Central Texas school districts. The University Interscholastic League, which governs high school sports in Texas, has no regulations about defibrillators, but its medical advisory committee has endorsed having them at games. The UIL should consider making defibrillators mandatory sideline equipment.
Although physical examinations are required for varsity sports at most high schools, screenings for heart ailments are not. Austin is fortunate that the Austin Heart Foundation has provided free screening for teen athletes for several years (a donation is requested from those who can afford it).
The Championship Hearts test screens for a common genetic condition that fells young players, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. HCM is a condition that results in a thickening of the heart muscle, not the same problem that Nader had. But 56 of the 3,500 athletes screened in Austin have been identified as having possible abnormalities.
After Robert Plumlee, a Bowie High School band member, died of HCM in 2004, the Austin Heart Foundation added band members to its screening program. Plumlee, 15, was with the Bowie band at the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix when he collapsed.
In 2001, Luling High School football player Steven Taylor, 15, also died from HCM. A Carter High School player in Dallas died in 2004 after practice in the August heat.
Injuries have struck Central Texas schools hard, as well. St. Stephens’ quarterback Will Benson collapsed and later died after suffering a head injury in a game in 2002. And San Antonio Madison defensive back David Edwards was paralyzed after a collision during a playoff game at Westlake in 2003.
Defibrillators, physical examinations, heart screenings and sideline physicians don’t guarantee a risk-free football game. But they can — and as we now know, do — save lives.