Florida now requiring heart screenings for high school athletes
Florida now requiring heart screenings for high school athletes
Florida high school students will now be required to undergo an electrocardiogram, or EKG, before participating in school sports under a new statewide law aimed at detecting potentially life-threatening heart conditions.
ORLANDO, Fla. - Florida high school students will now be required to undergo an electrocardiogram, or EKG, before participating in school sports under a new statewide law aimed at detecting potentially life-threatening heart conditions.
The requirement, known as the Second Chance Act, expands a practice that had already been adopted in some parts of the state.
The backstory:
The law is intended to identify heart abnormalities that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest in young athletes, often without warning.
"One random day I was 17 years old, going on a run and collapsed in sudden cardiac arrest," one survivor, Riley Broadhurst, said. Shawn Sima, a parent, recalled, "Within five minutes of running on a treadmill, a light jog, my daughter collapsed and basically dropped dead from sudden cardiac arrest."
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Medical experts say an abnormal EKG does not automatically prevent a student from playing sports. Instead, it can prompt additional evaluation by a cardiologist and, in some cases, treatment.
Even if you do have something irregular come up on the EKG, that doesn't rule you out from joining a team, according to a chief nursing officer with two HCA Florida hospitals.
Doctors also encourage parents and athletes to watch for warning signs that could indicate an underlying heart condition, including chest pain during exercise, fainting, unexplained dizziness, heart palpitations, unusual shortness of breath and extreme fatigue during physical activity.
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The EKG screening is a non-invasive test that takes only a few minutes and records the heart's electrical activity using electrodes placed on the body. Health officials encourage families to complete the screening before the start of the high school sports season.
The Source: This story was written based on Florida Statutes, information taken from student athletes and their parents, and Victor Llamas, a chief nursing officer with two HCA Florida.