Welcome to my page. This has been dedicated to my son, Mike. This is his story.
Mike was born in 1981. We were not aware of any medical problems and life went on until he was 13.
When we moved to Pennsylvania in 1991 he was finally able to join Little League. He played for 3 years, loving every minute. He was so good, coaches we surprised he hadn't had any formal training like baseball camps. He was blessed as a natural athlete.
In 1994, he decided he wanted to try football. Everyone had been telling him he was built for it, so why not? We brought him for his physical and the doctor mentioned he had high blood pressure. For a month or so, he had had some bad nosebleeds but we chalked it up to allergies. Considering the history of nosebleeds and the high blood pressure, our new doctor felt it was worth looking into.
Usually in children Mike's age, high blood pressure is caused by a kidney problem so that's what they looked at. When all tests were normal the last test they did was an echocardiogram. That's when everything changed.
We had known that Mike had an "innocent heart murmur" since he was 8 years old. We were told at that time not to worry they didn't think it was serious. I came home from work to a message on our answering machine. It was our doctor telling us they had the results of the echo. Mike had a condition they called at the time "Idiopathic Hypertrophic Subaortic Stenosis" - IHSS. I heard him say that if Mike played competitive sports he could suffer from "Sudden Death Syndrome", which is what killed basketball star Hank Gathers. After that, my mind is blank. I think I cried for 2 weeks straight. I couldn't let Mike see me upset so I blindly drove to and from work, crying all the way. What was going to happen to him`? How do I tell him his dreams are gone? Thank God he never started playing football. What if something had happened when he was playing baseball?
We saw a Pediatric Cardiologist who laid it all out for us. What Mike had is now called "Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy" - HOCM. What this means is there is a thickening in the lower chamber of Mike's heart that, if it grows, can obstruct the blood flow and electrical impulses in the heart and he would just drop dead. Mike's condition was considered "Mild to Moderate" which meant surgery wasn't an option at this time. There is some obstruction of blood flow, but because even with surgery this condition is never fully "cured" the obstruction can return.
As a result, Mike is no longer able to participate in the sport he loves, baseball. It has been a very hard adjustment for him, especially in the spring time. He had a problem recently which made us have an interesting conversation with his cardiologist.
He was telling us about the 600+ athletes who die every year from defects like Mike's. The schools "assembly line" their physicals and don't check on murmurs. If a child with a murmur had an echocardiogram, their physician could accurately determine whether or not the murmur is innocent or a problem. This alone could save many.
The other thing we discussed was the availability of the new portable defribulators. He seemed to feel that if they were available to team coaches and trainers, most of the lives could be saved. He told us that after a certain age CPR isn't enough. It takes the "shock" that a defribulator gives to bring these victims back.
Because of this, Mike and I have decided to make schools and athletic associations more aware of this problem. HOCM isn't the only reason these athletes collapse. There is also the problems like "Long Q-T Syndrome", Arrythmias (irregular heartbeats) as well as other CHD's. If we can save one life by making people more aware, than we'll be satisfied that we've done our job.
How to Help Our Athletes
