{"id":828,"date":"2012-03-01T15:06:07","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T20:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/genomics\/?p=828"},"modified":"2024-04-08T14:11:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T18:11:05","slug":"cardiac-death-of-the-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/genomics\/2012\/03\/01\/cardiac-death-of-the-young\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Sudden Cardiac Death of the Young be Prevented?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Michigan Story on Lessons Learned and Action Steps to Take<\/h2>\n

The winter months have arrived and with them comes a certain madness, specifically March Madness.\u00a0 On March 12, 2012 the NCAA men\u2019s college basketball tournament will commence.\u00a0 Most of the focus will be on cheering for the teams we picked to win our brackets; however, as Michigan learned last year,\u00a0this isn\u2019t the only thing we need to focus on.<\/p>\n

\"kids<\/a>On March 3, 2011, with less than 30 seconds left in overtime in Fennville High School\u2019s final regular season men\u2019s basketball game, a winning layup was scored that brought Fennville\u2019s team an undefeated record.\u00a0 With district playoffs in Fennville\u2019s future, the gymnasium was full of celebration.\u00a0 Within moments, the crowd went silent as their star player collapsed to the ground.\u00a0 Wes Leonard, the player who had scored the winning basket moments before\u00a0was now unconscious.\u00a0 Over 2,000 fans stood stunned, waiting for paramedics to arrive.\u00a0 Although an AED was present at the school, it was not charged and CPR was not performed because people did not think that cardiac arrest could be at fault in someone so young.\u00a0 Wes was later declared dead at a local hospital and the autopsy showed that he died of cardiac arrest due to an enlarged heart.<\/p>\n

Sudden deaths of young athletes bring attention to an important public health problem known as sudden cardiac death of the young (SCDY), which occurs in non-athletes, too.\u00a0 On average, an estimated 66 athletes die suddenly of cardiac cause each year in the United States.<\/a> \u00a0 Each year in Michigan alone, approximately 300 people aged 1-39 years die suddenly of a cardiac cause.<\/a> Importantly, SCDY is known to have a strong hereditary component in many cases.<\/p>\n

The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) Genomics Program<\/a>, with\u00a0support from CDC\u2019s Office of Public Health Genomics<\/a>, has been working since 2005 with a motivated group of experts and advocates to assess the impact of SCDY and identify action steps for prevention. Multiple data sources have been used to gather information about the burden, impact and causes of SCDY in\u00a0Michigan.<\/p>\n