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Our son, Michael Fisher, was born with a heart defect known as Subaortic stenosis which was followed annually by his physicians. Unfortunantly, on September 24, 2010 he collapsed while playing hockey in Dennis Twp, NJ, and died shortly thereafter due to his heart defect. Michael was 15 years old. He attended Cape May Technical School and was an honor roll student in the Allied Medical Program. He wanted to be a Nurse Practitioner. Michael was a friend to ALL. He was very kind and stuck up for the underdog. Because of this, in memory of him and raise awareness for children with heart defects we raise money for Deborah Heart and Lung Center and Michael Fisher Scholarship Fund. We also are trying to get the Michael Fisher Law passed for AEDs on youth Rec sports.

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Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is the most common cause of death in the United States resulting in more than 300 000 deaths annually. Sudden cardiac arrest is also the leading cause of sudden death in young athletes accounting for approximately 75% of all cases. The death of an athlete is a catastrophic event that has devastating effects on a family, teammates, school/university, and the local community. Athletes are regarded as the healthiest members of society, and their sudden death during practice or competition often sparks debate regarding the adequacy of emergency planning for athletic events. Recent findings from the National Registry for AED Use in Sports demonstrate improved survival for both student-athletes and nonstudents with SCA in the high school athletic setting. Upon review of 1710 nationwide high schools with on-site AED programs (at least 1 AED on school grounds; mean 2.8 AEDs per school), 36 (2%) schools reported a case of AED use within a 1-year period from July 2006 to June 2007. Twenty-two of the cases were in older nonstudents, and 14 cases were in high school student-athletes. Thirty cases received defibrillation with use of an on-site AED. The overall survival rate to hospital discharge was 64%, including a 64% survival rate in student-athletes with SCA. These findings strongly support the value of on-site AED programs for the treatment of SCA on school grounds. The favorable survival rate in young athletes who suffer SCA in schools with on-site AEDs sharply contrasts the 11% overall survival rate found in a 7-year review of exercise-related SCA in young individuals in the United States where on-site AED use was rarely reported

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The placement of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in public locations has provided a means for early defibrillation for out-of-hospital SCA. Public-access defibrillation in locations such as casinos, airports, and universities has shown a clear survival benefit achieving survival rates of 41% to 74% if bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is provided and defibrillation occurs within 3 to 5 minutes of arrest.§ This large-scale success has led many schools, universities, and sporting organizations to accelerate implementation of AEDs at athletic venues in an attempt to prevent sudden cardiac death (SCD) in both athletes and nonathletes attending athletic events.

The purpose of this article is to review the cause and incidence of SCD in athletes, summarize survival rates following SCA and past experience using AEDs in the athletic setting, and emphasize the role of AEDs as an essential component of a comprehensive emergency action plan (EAP) for SCA in the athletic setting.

 

According to the March of Dimes, congenital heart defects are the #1 birth defect. In the US alone, over 40,000 babies are born each year with a congenital heart defect. That translates to 1 out of every 33 children born. (To put those numbers into perspective, only 1 in every 700 babies are born with Downs Syndrome.) Sometimes the defect is so mild that there are no outward symptoms. Some heart defects are simply innocent murmurs which resolve on their own. In other cases, it's so severe that the newborn becomes ill soon after birth. In still other cases, signs and symptoms occur only in later childhood. Severe heart defects often require multiple surgeries, a lifetime of medications and preventative measures to maintain a working heart and a healthy body. For some people, their only hope is a heart transplant.

 

According to the CDC, During 1999–2006, there were 41,494 deaths related to CHDs in the United States. This means that CHDs were either the main cause of death or contributed to death in some way. During this time period, CHDs were listed as the main cause of death for 27,960 people. Nearly half (48%) of the deaths due to CHDs occurred during infancy (younger than 1 year of age)  As more children's heart abnormalities are successfully treated, research is needed to meet the medical needs of heart defect patients when they reach adulthood.

 

At least one-half million children in the U.S. have some form of cardiac problem (excluding high blood pressure). There are approximately one million people alive with congenital heart defects today. (AHA) Heart defects can be part of a wider pattern of birth defects.

 

 

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