sudden cardiac arrest

Athletic trainers need to take a more public health approach to injury prevention by expanding their professional focus from the teams and athletes they work with at their institutions to all physically active individuals, urged speakers at the National Athletic Trainers' Association's 2016 Clinical Symposia and AT Expo.

HIgh-school AED programs demonstrate a high survival rate for students as well as adults who suffer sudden cardiac arrest on school campuses, says a new study, which strongly recommends school-based AED programmes as an important public safety measure and an effective strategy for the prevention of sudden cardiac death during sports.

Nearly 350,000 people suffer cardiac arrest annually.   Because cardiac arrest leads to the death of one youth athlete every three days in the United States, sports parents should know how to perform CPR and use an AED, which can significantly increase a victim's chances of survival.

A helpful compilation of statistics on concussions, exercise-induced asthma, exertional heat illness, sudden cardiac arrest, exertional sickling, use of steroids and dietary supplements, and cervical spine injury collected by the National Athletic Trainers' Association.

The National Athletic Trainers' Association is now an official supporter of Advocates for Injured Athletes and its Athletes Saving Athletes^TM program, which provides high school students with training and skills to recognize signs and symptoms of life-threatening injuries, with the aim of reducing the risk and incidence of injury and death among student-athletes.

Young baseball and softball players who receive direct ball impact to the chest wall directly over the heart may develop sudden cardiac arrest, a condition called commotio cordis.  Teaching batters to turn away from an inside pitch, and pitchers to react as quickly as possible to a batted ball hit back at them can help reduce the risk, and an AED and a someone trained in CPR should be on site at all times to increase the chances of survival.

With the support of 40 sports and health organizations, including MomsTeam.com, the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) has issued a C+ grade on youth sports safety for 2010, reporting that 48 young athletes died since the beginning of the year, with sudden cardiac arrest accounting for nearly half of those deaths, brain injury (concussion) for three, heat illness three, and exertional sickling (a result of sickle cell trait) one. Approximately 8,000 children are treated in emergency rooms each day for sports-related injuries. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, high school athletes suffer 2 million injuries, 500,000 doctor visits and 30,000 hospitalizations each year.