There is something absolutely electric about sporting events, especially when it's a great game, whether we're talking about a championship-level match, a tied score with all bases loaded, or no timeouts left for either team. The atmosphere is practically palpable, and you can cut the tension with a knife. But what if in the middle of all of that, one of your best players just drops to the ground, is wheeled away, and all anyone is left with is confusion? How could someone so healthy and young just drop so suddenly? This is exactly the case with the increasing number of SCDs among young athletes.
Athletes, whether at their peak or nearing retirement, are considered pretty healthy. An athlete's main goal is to play the best game they can, and the only way to really do that is when you're in the best shape you can be. Despite that, an increasing number of young athletes are experiencing sudden cardiac death (SCDs) from undiagnosed or underdiagnosed cardiac-related problems, such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), familial dilated cardiomyopathy (FDCM), or even myocarditis (Better Screening Could Predict and Prevent Sudden Cardiac Death in Young People, n.d.). The most common one is HCM, which is the abnormal enlargement of, generally, the left ventricle, causing ventricular arrhythmias (aka ventricular fibrillation). The ventricles are the chambers of our heart that do the pumping of our blood, whereas our atrial chambers typically are just receiving. So VFib can be extremely life-threatening to our bodies if we are not receiving our adequate amount of 5.5L to our heart or surrounding areas, and as we know, once one system fails, the others are not far behind it.
Over the course of a 27-year-long window, one study found that approximately 1866 who suffered some sudden cardiac arrest while exercising/playing in a game, with 1064 of them resulting in deaths, and about 60% were high school students (Maron et al., 2009). As we learned in class, a portion of the reasoning behind these athletes dropping before our eyes is from a lack of proper screening for cardiac-related issues and an intense love of the game that could be taken away depending on the severity. Heart disease is the number one cause of death worldwide, so why are our screening processes so lax?
One study found that increased or different types of screening would help prevent additional or excess deaths in young athletes where another stated that due to the many causes of heart related issues (genetic, developed over a person’s lifetime, electrical issues, or physical issues) screening is often more difficult especially most who suffer from an SCD go their entire lives asymptomatic until they’re gone (“Basketball Players Suffer the Highest Rate of Sudden Cardiac Death,” n.d.).
Basketball players have been found to have the highest rate of SCD, both due to the asymptomatic nature of the disease causing SCDs but also due to their style of playing/training and their statures (longer limbs, taller bodies, etc.), leading to increased connective tissue problems affecting heart rate, functionality, and more (Wasfy et al., 2016). Reggie Lewis was unfortunately one of those individuals who tragically lost their life at the age of 27 after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest during a practice and then a game. While one set of doctors diagnosed Reggie with a fatal cardiac disease and said he’d never play basketball again post-practice collapse, Reggie’s love of playing and what would’ve been a long and strong career made him go seek a different opinion. This second opinion? His heart was perfectly “normal with a normal heartbeat,” and his issues were a simple fainting disorder. Reggie, with that recommendation, donned his uniform for one last time and played a great game until he collapsed again. This collapse would lead to his death. If Reggie had received more extensive screening early on, would his symptoms and/or main cardiac concern have been able to be addressed and treated so Reggie could still be here with us today, even if not on the court in the way he desired?
Will the ultimate love of the game be what takes the game away from these athletes?
Citations:
Basketball Players Suffer the Highest Rate of Sudden Cardiac Death. (n.d.). UAB Medicine. Retrieved November 6, 2025, from https://www.uabmedicine.org/news/basketball-players-suffer-the-highest-rate-of-sudden-cardiac-death/
Better screening could predict and prevent sudden cardiac death in young people. (n.d.). Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation. Retrieved November 7, 2025, from https://www.sca-aware.org/sca-news/better-screening-could-predict-and-prevent-sudden-cardiac-death-in-young-people
Maron, B. J., Doerer, J. J., Haas, T. S., Tierney, D. M., & Mueller, F. O. (2009). Sudden Deaths in Young Competitive Athletes. Circulation, 119(8), 1085–1092. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.108.804617
Wasfy, M. M., Hutter, A. M., & Weiner, R. B. (2016). Sudden Cardiac Death in Athletes. Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Journal, 12(2), 76–80. https://doi.org/10.14797/mdcj-12-2-76
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