The first day of high school football practice was marked by sudden cardiac emergencies in two communities this week.
The Lower Burrell, Pennsylvania, community is mourning the loss of a local high school football player. Noah Cornuet, 16, was running sprints around 6 p.m. Wednesday night when he walked off the field and collapsed. He was later pronounced dead at Allegheny Valley Hospital. Cornuet was a sophomore on Burrell High School’s football team. Cornuet’s older brother and former teammate, Shane, said the coaching staff immediately began CPR on Noah and used a defibrillator to try to bring the unresponsive young man back to life. It was later determined that the cause of death was a noncancerous heart tumor, called atrial myxoma.
“It’s a very unfortunate case and a very rare cause of sudden death,” said Srinivas Murali, MD, director of Allegheny General Hospital’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. “The problem with these myxomas is that they can start and slowly grow over time and you might not even know you have one. It’s very possible he had no symptoms.”
The condition is easily diagnosable through an echocardiogram when patients do have symptoms, such as fainting or shortness of breath, said Murali, who serves on the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation Board of Directors. Treatment is immediate removal of the tumor through open-heart surgery, he said, and the success rate is very high. Cases of reported sudden death from atrial myxomas number only about 20 in American medical literature, he said.
In Alabama, the parents of Spanish Fort High School sophomore Alex McKeever, thanked the school’s football coaches and trainer, Rob Milam, after their son collapsed on the field during the first day of fall practice. The school personnel initiated CPR and used an automated external defibrillator (AED) to resuscitate Alex.
Defensive lineman Alex McKeever went down near the end of practice late Monday morning. He was not dehydrated and did not suffer a heat stroke, according to a statement released by Sean and Shelley McKeever.
“At this time, we are told that he experienced a ‘cardiac incident,’” the statement from his parents said. “He has been transported to the University of Alabama for further evaluation. Our family appreciates each and everyone that has reached out to us, and we ask that everyone continue to pray for Alex, his medical staff and our family.”
Milam, assistant coach Greg Crager and other coaches were with McKeever seconds after he fell. “As soon as that happened, immediately we had trainers and coaches on him and went into an emergency action plan,” Spanish Fort coach Mark Freeman said. “We were very blessed that everyone was doing everything we were supposed to do. We feel like we were doing everything we could do for Alex. At the same time, we feel like it was through God’s intervention that he is with us today.”
According to Milam, "The biggest takeaway – other than Alex’s health of course – is to make sure you have the things necessary for any situation. That is, an athletic trainer on staff, at every event, doing everything an athletic trainer is trained to do, and having an AED on-site. That ultimately saved his life.” More...
SOURCES: Pittsburgh Post Gazette, High School Sports Alabama
For educational resources on heart screening and emergency response plans, see You Can Save a Life at School and You Can Save a Life on Campus.