Third School Track and Field death this spring in Wisconsin

[26mi235]

This is absolutely shocking to me, one death is quite unusual from the modest population of Wisconsin students in T&F. I think that this number is high for the entire country, which would include 60 times as many people.

BEAVER DAM, Wis. -- Questions remain about what caused the death of a 13-year-old Beaver Dam girl who died on Wednesday after track practice.

http://www.channel3000.com/news/13299021/detail.html

[Daisy]

Re: Third School Track and Field death this spring in Wiscon

This is absolutely shocking to me, one death is quite unusual from the modest population of Wisconsin students in T&F. I think that this number is high for the entire country, which would include 60 times as many people.

BEAVER DAM, Wis. -- Questions remain about what caused the death of a 13-year-old Beaver Dam girl who died on Wednesday after track practice.

http://www.channel3000.com/news/13299021/detail.html

i was thinking along the line of javelins but these seem to be related to genetics. Are there more people involved in school sports now such that there is a greater chance these things happenduring workouts rather than outisde school?

[tafnut]

Jim Fixx died running (I believe it was right after his daily run). No one dies from running. They die from causes that are revealed by the 'stress' of exercise, stress which, of course, makes the body stronger and boosts the auto-immune system. I certainly hope the coach is not found 'negligent' in this case - the situation involves enough grief for the community without compounding it.

[DrJay]

Link to prior discussion about sudden deaths in young athletes, when Bekele's fiancee died:

http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... torder=asc

[26mi235]

Link to prior discussion about sudden deaths in young athletes, when Bekele's fiancee died:

http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... torder=asc

I think that there is likely to be a big difference between her and these three cases. Each of these three were not top athletes even at the level of HS teams at modest sized HSs. They were unlikely to have had nearly as many hard training events and thus they occur here because even this level of effort initiates a situation that has lead to death. None of these three look like big training no-nos; no one sent them back out to do several more reps after they were unable to complete one adequately etc.

[lonewolf]

It strikes me that it is just a coincidence that all three lived in Wisconsin.

[DrJay]

Link to prior discussion about sudden deaths in young athletes, when Bekele's fiancee died:

http://mb.trackandfieldnews.com/discuss ... torder=asc

I think that there is likely to be a big difference between her and these three cases.

Probably not. Young athlete dies rather suddenly during/just after exercise, it doesn't matter whether they're world class or barely making the junior varsity team, the vast majority of the time it will be due to one of several cardiac problems. From the Bekele thread (my post):

"When a very fit, young athlete like this dies suddenly, it virtually always is due to one of several cardiac abnormalities, including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, conduction system abnormalities like long QT syndrome (which can be familial) or Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, or anomalous origin of a coronary artery ( I think this is what basketball star Pete Maravich had.) David Kimani likely had one of these conditions. Some of these problems can cause some warning symptoms weeks, months, or years before a fatal event, but often not. Some of these can be picked up on phyical exam (listening to the heart for a characteristic murmur of HCM) but others can't. Most (but not all) conduction system abnormalities will show up on an EKG but the conditions are pretty rare and doing an EKG on every young athlete about to do a sport has not been firmly recommended by groups like the American College of Cardiology, to my knowledge. A personal history of passing out, even once, or of palpitations or unusual shortness of breath, or a family history of sudden death in a relatively young person should prompt a more careful evaluation--EKG, possibly a referral to a cardiologist. "

[TrakFan]

Probably not. Young athlete dies rather suddenly during/just after exercise, it doesn't matter whether they're world class or barely making the junior varsity team, the vast majority of the time it will be due to one of several cardiac problems.

Very true. My co-worker's 8-year old daughter died from a heart related incident while on the playground (in the Springs) about 2 months ago.

[26mi235]

Dr. Jay has:
"When a very fit, young athlete like this dies suddenly,..."

None of these three athletes were 'very fit'; this is very different physically than in the case you were referencing.

[Daisy]

Dr. Jay has:
"When a very fit, young athlete like this dies suddenly,..."

None of these three athletes were 'very fit'; this is very different physically than in the case you were referencing.

While this is true it is not normal for an unfit 'athlete' to drop dead. These athletes were working well within normal capacity for the body. The connection seems to be a weak heart.

Dr Jay, are these types cardiac failures inevitable for these kids or could they be OK if avoiding exercise altogether? I wonder if more kids are just doing exercise in school that makes it more obvious, and as tafnut mentions above, this is normally a good thing.

[DrJay]

Dr. Jay has:
"When a very fit, young athlete like this dies suddenly,..."

None of these three athletes were 'very fit'; this is very different physically than in the case you were referencing.

The likely causes of death are still the same. My comment about "Very fit" simply came in the context of a discussion of Bekele's fiancee'. Change the comment to "otherwise healthy young people who die suddenly during exercise...." They don't die of a sudden kidney problem, or pneumonia, or pancreatitis. They generally die of a cardiac problem. Sure, there may be the occasional death from asthma in this situation. A ruptured appendix, maybe? Doubtful. Too sudden for that.

[DrJay]

Dr Jay, are these types cardiac failures inevitable for these kids or could they be OK if avoiding exercise altogether?

People with these cardiac problems can and do suffer sudden death even if they don't exercise, but exercise increases the risk for various reasons, depending on the condition. Got to go now.

[Pego]

Jay has pretty much summarized the cardiac causes and a couple of others. All I want to add is that a small percentage of sudden death in athletes (including the young ones) is due to a cerebral vascular malformation ( the most prominent one would be Flo-Jo).