Archive - Jul 2008

July 30, 2008­–When the American Heart Association recommended in April that all 2.5 million children taking stimulant drugs for ADHD should have an electrocardiogram (ECG) to screen for hidden heart problems (because a small number of these children die from abnormal heart rhythms), it came as an unpleasant surprise for parents.

It also was an unpleasant surprise for the American Academy of Pediatrics, which got the news just a few hours before the recommendation went public. So, a few weeks later, the pediatricians released their own recommendation: No ECGs.

June 27, 2008–Just one in 10 U.S. student-athletes who suffer sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) survives, a new study found.

SCA is the leading cause of death in young athletes and the leading overall cause of death in the United States. Approximately one SCA case occurs every three days in organized youth sports, according to background information with the study.

“Overall, there is pretty poor survival from sudden cardiac arrest in young people,” said study co-author Dr. Kimberly G. Harmon, of the University of Washington Department of Orthopedics and Sports Medicine.

But, there is a trend toward improved survival, Harmon said. “This is probably due to improved access to external automatic defibrillators (AEDs),” she said. “As we study this over the next several years, we are going to find that survival will improve as emergency plans and AEDs become more available and used.”

The SCA Foundation announced the You Can Save a Life^TM National SCA Awareness Campaign for Schools and hosted a meeting with program partners during the Emergency Cardiac Care Update (ECCU) in June. The immediate goals of the campaign are to raise awareness about the prevention and treatment of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and motivate stakeholders to establish screening programs and CPR-AED training and response programs in schools. The long-term goal is to help create a new generation of students who will be ready, willing and able to help whenever and wherever SCA occurs.

The SCA Foundation announced the You Can Save a LifeTM National SCA Awareness Campaign for Schools and hosted a meeting with program partners during the Emergency Cardiac Care Update (ECCU) in June. The immediate goals of the campaign are to raise awareness about the prevention and treatment of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and motivate stakeholders to establish screening programs and CPR-AED training and response programs in schools. The long-term goal is to help create a new generation of students who will be ready, willing and able to help whenever and wherever SCA occurs.

When a high profile figure does something unusual, we all seem to hear about it. When they leave us we wonder why, and start to question our own vulnerabilities. On June 13, 2008, a not so unusual event occurred at the NBC studios in Washington DC. You may be surprised to learn that the same event occurs hundreds of time per day, and yet it seems sudden and shocking. It is called a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and kills more people in this country than lung cancer, breast cancer and AIDS combined.

There is a definite, tangible benefit to the media attention this tragic loss has occasioned. It is the awareness of sudden cardiac arrest. The more the media relays the story of Tim Russert’s collapse, the more the public becomes aware. SCA has been the nations’ number one, “silent, serial killer” for too long already.

July 24, 2008­–LOS ANGELES­–Television star Kelsey Grammer, best known from “Cheers” and his sitcom “Frasier,” nearly died after suffering sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) last month, he told U.S. showbiz news program “Entertainment Tonight.”

Grammer, 53, felt chest pains while paddle-boarding with his wife in Hawaii, where they have a second home, and was taken to hospital, where he was found to have suffered a heart attack that led to cardiac arrest.

Mary Jo Cipollini, Poughkeepsie, NY – 36 at time of event (2002)

A trip to the supermarket can change your life forever. Mary Jo had taken her two-year-old Tommy, and her parents, grocery shopping one morning in early October. At the store, she received a call from the nurse at her six-year-old daughter’s school, asking Mary Jo to pick Ally up because she had an earache. Unperturbed, Mary Jo left Tommy with Grandma and Grandpa, and headed out to the parking lot with a handful of shopping bags, to collect her daughter.

Tomas Schafer, Boise, ID – 61 at time of event (2008)

He’s six-foot tall, strong and fit, and weighed 200 lbs before he began exercising one Monday afternoon in February this year. Tomas can’t really tell you what happened. In fact this ex-sports-journalist told me can’t even remember the 2008 Super Bowl. “We had guests over to watch it together and, apparently, it was an exciting game!” He also lost Christmas, New Years and all of January. He does, however, have love; his fiancée Marilee can attest to that. And he has God guiding him forward through this troubling time.

Colby Brooks, Portland, OR – 30 at time of event (2008)

Colby Brooks is an athlete, just like his brothers. “I’m super-active,” he says with pride, describing how he goes hiking and biking alone into the mountains with 80 pounds of camping gear on his back. While he wouldn’t class his physical exertions as extreme sports, you could certainly say they are at that end of the spectrum. His specific interest is bike racing—the kind that requires you to pump hard with your legs. In fact he was doing just that one Monday last month in the Mountain Bike Short Track Series at PIR (Portland International Raceway). Today, he can’t really remember that fateful evening. He can only relay the story he’s been told.

July 17, 2008–MARBURG, Germany-- Resuscitated cardiac arrest patients treated in an ICU who leave the hospital without severe neurological disabilities may expect a reasonable quality of life over the next five years, a German study found.

"We believe our study is the first to demonstrate that patients who leave the hospital following cardiac arrest without severe neurological disabilities may expect fair long-term survival and quality of life for reasonable expenses to the healthcare system," Dr. Graf's team concluded.