Ohio bill would work to prevent cardiac arrest in young athletes

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Sudden cardiac arrest is rare for people younger than 35, but according to the American Heart Association, it is the leading cause of death for student and youth athletes in the United States.

Ohio state Representatives Tristan Rader (D-Lakewood) and Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) have proposed House Bill 437, which would require students to undergo cardiac screenings before being allowed to play sports. 

“We know that when students enter the field, a lot of them aren’t screened for the right things,” Rader said. “This standardizes the screening process to catch things like heart defects or heart disease that may actually lead to sudden cardiac arrest.” 

Those screenings would include questions not only about the student’s health, but about any family history related to cardiac conditions. According to Schmidt, such screenings will allow doctors to make proper recommendations about a child’s safety while playing sports and will help coaches and parents monitor children on the field. 

“Your best weapon against an injury when you’re a child is your parent, because your parent knows you best and they’re the ones with the very critically watchful eye on you, especially when they see you in competition,” Schmidt said. “The coach can’t see everything on the field, but that parent’s gonna see those kids’ eyes.”  

Both lawmakers said that just because a kid might have a heart condition or be at a higher risk does not necessarily mean they can’t play a sport. 

 “We’re not here fearmongering about this, we’re here to say, if we take these super simple preventative steps we can address this, we can monitor it,” Rader said. “Many of these students, even if they have a heart defect, can play sports but…they need to be in consultation with their doctors, make sure they’re on the right medicines, things like that, make sure they’re not in positions that could lead to exacerbating whatever condition that is.” 

Schmidt added the screening requirements are about, “allowing the coach to know there might be an issue, allow the parents to know there might be an issue so that we can always let those kids be the kids they want to be.”

The legislature tackled the issue of sudden cardiac arrest among student athletes with Lindsey’s Law in 2017. Rader and Schmidt said their bill would expand upon that law with provisions regarding the required cardiac screenings, standardized guidelines from the Department of Health, and educational material for parents. 

“We do have a provision in the bill that would require that every parent gets a pamphlet with very specific, very clear information about what they should be doing, what they should be looking for and how they should be moving forward if their son or daughter has some type of heart condition,” Rader said. 

H.B. 437, which Rader and Schmidt have named the Healthy Cardiac Monitoring Act, received its fifth hearing in the House Health Committee on Tuesday. The bill has earned the support of the American Heart Association, the Ohio Chapter of the American College of Cardiology, the Ohio Alliance of YMCAs and the Cleveland Clinic.