Advocates for Injured Athletes is
just one of many foundations that’s mission is to improve the sport safety
experience for all young athletes. Beth
and A4IA got its start after Tommy survived a potentially fatal neck injury and
concussion while other organizations get their start after a tragedy (Taylor Hooten Foundation, Matthew Gfeller Foundation,
Eric Paredes Save a Life Foundation, Kendrick Fincher Memorial Foundation,
Korey Stringer Institute among others). In the end, no matter the specific mission of
the foundation, or how it got its start, the end goal for all these groups (and
the countless others not mentioned here) is to reduce the number of
sport-related deaths in our youth.
Thinking about this mission and the recent story of Dayle Wood, along with the “saves” performed
by ASA Ambassadors I am proud to have even a small role in educating coaches,
parents and athletes alike in how to be better prepared to help young athletes
in distress. I would like to think that
the combined efforts of everyone working toward this goal has in some way
prevented many tragedies and saved families and communities from the heartache
that can result.
As I’ve read the paper
over the last few months with fall sports seasons well under way I felt like I
was still reading many more stories about young people who have left us way too
soon and far fewer stories about individuals who had survived a potential
tragedy. My initial reaction is: we still have much work to do. There are parents, coaches and administrators
to educate, athletic trainers to advocate for and continued efforts needed to
maintain youth sport safety as a priority in our local communities. This initial reaction is what keeps me going
with A4IA and expanding its efforts, but I realized we may need to look a
little closer to find the positive effects of the youth sports safety movement.
Further reflection
caused me to realize that perhaps I’m reading more about tragedies and less
about survivors because the opportunities for tragedy has decreased. What if the work being done isn’t only
preparing providers to act appropriately in an emergency, but what if the
potential for a tragedy is being reduced (and ultimately eliminated)? Perhaps the old saying, “an ounce of
prevention, is worth a pound of cure” is really true. The funny thing is, it is difficult to know
how many emergencies were prevented since they never happened. Despite this I would argue preventing an
emergency from happening is always the better course as opposed to an emergency
you are ill equipped to manage. In the
end, planning and preparation are your best keys to prevention. What have you done today to prevent an
emergency with your child? Team? School? League? Are you prepared to prevent an emergency
today? I hope there comes a day where
everyone can answer “yes” with confidence.
In order to gather my
thoughts for this post I took about thirty minutes and did an Internet search
for young athletes who suffered a potentially fatal injury while participating
in fall sports (August –September 2013) and I found one survival story in Dayle
Wood, but found these tragedies:
September
20, 2013
Collapsed
in HS cafeteria following a run around the school track. Had previously been cleared through an annual
sports physical to compete on the basketball team. Cause of death currently unknown, believed to
be SCA.
September
19, 2013
Cause
of death to be determined and other details were not released. It is unclear whether her passing was
sport-related at this time.
September
17, 2013
Lost
consciousness on the sideline after taking a helmet-to-helmet hit during a
football game.
September
16, 2013
Had
an allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) to fire ant bites during a game.
September
14, 2013
Suffered
exertional heat illness during wrestling practice, team training.
September
7, 2013
Collapsed
while playing pickup basketball in a local gym.
Family has history of “enlarged heart” (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) and
HCM was found to be cause of death.
September
5, 2013
Collapsed
during a soccer game and it was determined that she suffered SCA.
August
30, 2013
Had
just starting playing a pickup basketball game when he collapsed, cause of
death unknown, but believed to be SCA.
August
27, 2013
Collapsed
on the sideline after making a tackle.
The exact cause of his death has yet to be determined.
August
16, 2013
Fractured
his neck during a football scrimmage.
My thoughts and
prayers go out to the families, teammates and communities who are still dealing
with the loss of these young people and hope someday soon there will be far
fewer of these tragedies to report in the local news. I acknowledge that this list may be
incomplete (as sometimes searching on the Internet is not an exact science) and
so I send condolences to those communities who may be suffering from a loss
that I’m unaware of. In the end, I look
forward to continuing to work with all those like Beth and A4IA until athletes
of all ages and all competitive levels can compete and play safely.
Submitted by Heather
L. Clemons, MS, MBA, ATC
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